It Started At VidCon
by ParadiseAly
Summary: Sofia started making YouTube videos in her room when she was 14. She never thought being stupid on camera would get her 2 million subscribers by age 18. When she moves from her home in Australia all the way to San Diego, she finally gets the chance to meet some of her best friends, do some collabs, and meet her biggest crush, Connor Franta. Connor Franta fanfic. Read and review!
1. San Diego!

Like most other Youtubers, I started making random videos as a teenager and posting them. When I was 14 years old, I started my channel, SofiaNotSophia. It was a kind of stupid name I came up with just because of the over abundance of people misspelling my name. But people seemed to like the name, so it stuck.

My first ever video was me and my best friend at the time, Olivia. We looked up a list of Australian Slang terms and talked about whether or not they were actually used commonly and the one's that were stupid, we made fun of.

The video was funny, but also vaguely offensive, I guess. Most of our Aussie friends thought we were right idiots, but a lot of other people, especially Americans, thought it was hilarious. The video got nearly half a million views within a few weeks. People begged me to make more videos and upload them, and who was I to say no?

I kept doing stuff like that. I made loads of videos of me just talking about stuff and making jokes and being silly. Olivia was even in a few of them.

By the time I was 16, I had almost a million people who'd subscribed to my channel. The entire concept was crazy to me. I was just talking and acting ridiculous but people loved it.

I was just about to start a much requested Q&A video when my mum knocked on my door. She came in a second later and sat down on the bed next to me. That's when she broke the news to me.

We were moving. My whole life I'd always talked about wanting to run away and live somewhere new. But suddenly, the small town of Bowen, Queensland, Australia, had never seemed so inviting.

I cried my eyes out. I didn't want to leave all of my friends. I didn't want to leave what I'd grown accustumed to. I was absolutely terrified of leaving my comfort zone.

But this was not my option. We would be moving to San Diego, California. No, we weren't just moving to another part of Australia, we were moving to a whole new continent. I was terrified and I was pissed.

After I stopped crying that night and made myself look a bit more presentable, I started a video.

I turned the camera on without plastering a smile onto my face.

"Hey, guys, Sofia here. So, this video isn't what it was supposed to be. I promised all of you a Q&A but I just really need to talk right now and I promise I'll get that video out to you as soon as I possibly can." I paused and sighed before I began talking again.

"My mum just gave me some pretty interesting news. Um, I'm moving. To the United States. San Diego, to be exact. I've never even left Bowen, let alone Australia as a whole. I'm pretty nervous. We're moving in like two weeks so I'm kind of freaking out and I'm going to have to start packing tonight. Maybe I'll record a video while I'm doing it and talk about what I hate about packing or something. Or I'll lay in my bed and cry. One or the other."

I laughed briefly at how stupid I sounded. "I'm not going to have loads of time to edit this video so I think I'm just going to keep it short and sweet and post the whole thing. But yeah, thanks for watching and everything. Leave me a comment and tell me if you've ever had to move to a crazy different place, where you moved to, whether you liked it or not, let me know what you think about all of this. Anyways, I love you guys heaps. I'll talk to you later. Byeeee!"

I clicked off my camera and plugged into my laptop and immediately uploaded the video to my channel with the title "San Diego?!"

I didn't bother with waiting to see any comments before I left my computer and began packing. That night I managed to pack about half of my belongings before I fell into bed at 4 am with a headache and stress induced stomach cramps.

Before I even realized two weeks had passed, the house was empty and we were getting on a plane to fly to the US.

I don't remember how long it was exactly, but we had one stop along the way. I slept most of the time.

Once we landed at the airport, we got into a cab that took us to our new house.

All of our stuff was waiting inside because Mum had it shipped over early.

My Dad's sister and her husband, who'd lived in San Diego since I was a baby, had come over and set a lot of the house up. The beds were ready to sleep on, there was an office for dad, I had a large room to myself. It was fabulous.

Except for the fact that I didn't actually know anyone.

Mum and Dad spent time catching up with my aunt and uncle while I went upstairs and began unpacking the rest of my stuff and decorating my room.

I hung up my fairy lights and my favorite posters and set up the big lights I used for my videos.

Once I'd decorated and managed to put away a fair share of my clothes, I flopped down on my bed and pulled out my phone.

I had 28 texts.

A few were from old friends saying that they miss me already and that we needed to Skype or Facetime ASAP.

I assured them that I missed them as well before looking at the other texts.

I had two from Caspar Lee, telling me to have fun and not freak out too much because America's actually really cool and I was going to love it. I thanked him and even sent him a picture of my room.

The conversation I opened after that contained 20 unread messages, all from Tyler Oakley.

He was excited.

"Does this mean we get to meet? Can we do a collab? Oh my god, does this mean you're going to VidCon next month? Please say yes."

Those were just a few of the messages.

I grinned and texted back. "Give me some time to settle in and get things sorted. How about I come to LA in a week and we can spend some time together and do some cool collabs?"

He texted back right away. "YASSSSS! I'm so excited. Oh my god. Just fyi, when you go to VidCon, because you will be going to VidCon, I'm introducing you to EVERYONE."

I laughed and sent back a smiley face before tossing my phone to the side and going to shower.

A week later my mother was driving me to the train station so I could ride up to LA and spend a few days at Tyler's apartment.

When I got out of the car at the station, Mum gave me a tight hug and made me promise to be as careful as I possibly could and to stay with Tyler at all times. I agreed to her terms before rushing to get on my train.

Three hours later the train was stopping at the station in LA.

I grabbed the two bags I'd brought with me and rushed off the train.

When I got inside I saw Tyler standing just a few meters away.

I squealed and hurried over.

"Sofia!" He shouted when he saw me.

I dropped my bags and hugged him tightly.

Although Tyler was 22 and I was only 16, he was one of my best friends, not only on Youtube, but just in general.

"I never thought this would actually happen!" I said.

He smiled brightly at me. His voice was just as cheerful as in all of his videos. "Your accent is even cuter in person. All of the straight boys are going to eat you up."

I laughed. "I doubt that."

He rolled his eyes. "Please. I already know of at least six other guys that think you're cute as shit."

I blushed. "Don't even start with that, Tyler Oakley."

"Don't even start with me, Sofia Forwood."

I chuckled before picking up my bags and following Tyler to his car.

He drove to his apartment while I sat in the passenger seat and stared out the window. I was too interested in everything around me to really hold a conversation.

"Wow." I whispered.

I heard Tyler laugh a little.

"Is it always this pretty?" I asked in awe.

He nodded. "Every single day."

I grinned. "I could get used to this place, honestly."

Once we got to Tyler's apartment, I sat down on his lounge.

"This lounge has held the butts of many fabulous youtubers." I said adoringly.

"Some damn nice butts have sat on that couch." He said.

I giggled. "There's a question. Who has the nicest butt on youtube?"

"Sawyer, duh." He said.

"Ugh, Sawyer's so hot." I groaned and Tyler laughed.

"Hey, that's a good idea for a collab. We could do a Fuck, Marry Kill video for your channel!" Tyler said.

I jumped up. "Oh my god, yes!"

"What should we do for my channel?" He asked.

I thought about it for a second. "Can we do Innuendo Bingo on yours?"

He nodded. "Yes. Absolutely. I haven't played that in so long."

"I've never played it so I'm excited." I said.

"What rules for FMK?" Tyler asked.

I tapped the seat of the lounge beside me. "Come sit, child. We will decide."

He sat down beside me. "You really aren't much different from your videos. You're the same person, basically."

I nodded. "I don't, like, act for my videos. I just talk and say stupid shit. Anyways, rules."

He nodded and opened a note on his phone. "I'll write them down."

"Mixed genders. A combination of youtubers and regular celebrities, musicians, actors, whatever. We'll do something different and add two nonhumans, like, animals. And one object. And we'll write all the names down, put them in a cup or a hat, then randomly draw three, and we'll say who we would marry, fuck, or kill." I said and he typed the rules into his phone quickly.

Before I knew it, Tyler had his camera set up and the lighting was perfect.

"Are you ready?" I asked when he sat down beside me with two stacks of post it notes and sharpies.

He nodded and handed me one stack of papers and a marker.

Tyler turned on his camera and we started the video.

"Hey, guys! Sofia here!" I said with a wave. "And today we have my first ever collab with the one and only..."

"Tyler Oakley!" He chirped.

"Tyler, tell the lovely people what we're doing today!" I said.

"Fuck, Marry, Kill!"

I grinned. "Today Tyler and I are going to write names and stuff down on these little pieces of paper and put them in this lovely hat-" Tyler held up the hat "-and randomly pick three out and tell you what we would do to them. The rules are that we will each write down ten youtubes, ten normal celebrities, two nonhumans/animals, and one object."

"Then we're gonna get real dirty." Tyler said and I laughed.

"We're getting creepy on it."

Then we started writing down names and folding up the papers before dropping them into the black and white snapback Tyler had pulled out for this exact use.

"Do you want to pick first?" I asked Tyler.

He pulled three slips out of the hat and started unfolding them.

"Sawyer Hartman, Lorde, and a cup of coffee." He read.

"I'm fucking the cup of coffee." I said immediately, trying not to laugh.

Tyler cackled. "If anyone in the world would fuck a cup of coffee, it would be you."

I cracked up. "I'm sorry. I just love coffee."

"Are you marrying Sawyer, because I have to marry Sawyer."

I nodded. "Duh. If I marry Sawyer, I can fuck him all the time."

Tyler laughed again. "Oh, girl yes. Wait, does that mean you're killing Lorde? You can't be the person that kills Lorde!"

"No one has to know. No one has to know you killed Lorde. It's not public. It's a secret. You're not going to be walking down the street and have some guy be like 'Tyler Oakley, that's the asshole that killed Lorde.' No. It's just going to be like 'Oh hey, that's Tyler Oakley!' No one will know." I said.

"I would kill the cup of coffee, honestly." Tyler said.

I shook my head. "You're awful."

"You're killing a person! I'm killing coffee!" He defended.

"Exactly. We all know which is really worse and it's killing coffee. Save the coffee."

He laughed and shook his head. "Okay, pick three more!"

I pulled out three more pieces of paper.

"Zac Efron, Luke Hemmings, and Connor Franta." I read off.

"Oh no. Can I kill no one?" Tyler asked.

"Honestly, though. I don't want to kill anyone. Actually, fuck it. I definitely couldn't kill Luke or Connor, so I would have to say kill Zac." I rambled.

"Yeah, okay. I agree with that." Tyler said. "Who would you fuck? I would fuck Luke and marry Connor."

"You know Connor Franta is like my ultimate crush? Like, not only on youtube, but like, in life. Ultimate crush. So I'm definitely marrying him on the grounds the fucking is included in that." I admitted.

"You know he watches your videos, right?" Tyler said.

My eyes got wide. "Oh shit."

He burst out laughing and I giggled.

"Connor, if you're watching this, you're hot." I said to the camera and Tyler laughed harder.

A couple days later, I edited and uploaded the video, leaving in the part about my crush on Connor Franta.

The video blew up. Within two days, it had half a million views. Not to mention that I gained a load of new subscribers.

I got heaps of texts from friends and other youtubers congratulating me on hitting 1 million subs.

I was sending thank yous to the people who had thanked me when Tyler screamed my name although he was only a few feet away.

I jumped. "Jesus, Tyler. What?"

"Sofia. Sofia! Oh my fucking god, Sofia!"

"Whaaaaat?" I whined.

"Connor saw your video." He said.

My jaw dropped. "You're fucking joking right?"

He shook his head. "He just texted me and told me he watched both collabs we did."

My face turned bright red. "If I knew he was actually going to see it, I wouldn't have said what I did! Oh my god."

"I think you should read these messages." Tyler said and handed me his phone.

I read the conversation.

Connor: I saw those collabs you did with Sofia.

Tyler: Oh my goodness. Did you really?

Connor: They were fucking hilarious. Was she serious about me being her crush?

Tyler: Obviously.

Connor: (heart eyes emoji) She's a babe.

Tyler: She's sixteen.

Connor: I can wait.

I handed Tyler's phone back to him before standing up and pacing back and forth.

After a few minutes of pacing and Tyler staring at me, I screamed.

"WHAT IS THIS LIFE?!" I wailed and dropped to the floor, laying on my back.

"Are you okay?" Tyler asked.

"Connor Franta said 'she's a babe' and used the heart eyes emoji in reference to me." I shrieked. "Do you think I'm okay?!"

I stared the ceiling for about five minutes. "File under: 'Reasons I need to be legal now.'"

Tyler grinned and pulled me to my feet.

I stared at Tyler who was only a few inches taller than myself. "As you always say, the thirst is real."

He shook his head and chuckled. "He's too old for you."

"Three years isn't that bad!" I said.

"Just wait until you're 18, child."

My shoulders slumped. "Ughhhhh."

"He said he can wait." He reminded me and I wailed.

Tyler suddenly smiled widely.

"What?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Just thinking."

"About?" I prodded.

"Nothing. Just excited to introduce you to e_veryone _at VidCon next month."

I should've payed more attention to the way he said "Everyone." But being the idiot that I am, I didn't think a damn thing about it.

I didn't expect a single damn thing that happened at VidCon, but I kind of loved it.

~!Author's Note!~ Okay, so, I got a request from a girl who asked me to write a fanfiction where the lead character is a Youtuber who ends up becoming friends with loads of other youtubers, you know how it goes. So here's chapter one. I hope you guys like it. It's not what I normally write but please tell me what you think. Love you. -Aly


	2. VidCon and Big Hills

"You look damn good."

I turned to flash Sawyer a smile before turning back to the mirror to make sure my makeup looked okay. "Good enough for VidCon?"

He nodded. "Definitely good enough for VidCon."

I smiled again. "Thanks, Sawyer."

Today was the day. My first VidCon.

I stared at my outfit. It was definitely cute, and surprisingly flattering. I decided to keep it somewhat simple as well. Grey skinny jeans, all black vans, a sheer black lace tank top with a light blue bandeau underneath, a watch in the same color of the bandeau, and a beanie that had one shade of blue that matched the watch, a stripe of grey, and a stripe of a darker blue, topped with a blue and grey pom pom. My makeup was simple too. A little black eyeliner and mascara and soft pink lipgloss. My nails I'd done a few days ago. They were blue, and the middle finger on each hand had a black cloud with Okay? written in white letters, and the ring finger had a white cloud with Okay written in black letters to honor my favorite book, The Fault In Our Stars.

"I don't look too tumblr-y, do I?" I asked.

Sawyer laughed. "Of course you look tumblr-y. You are tumblr-y. That's why everyone loves you."

I giggled.

"Are you nervous?" He asked, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

I nodded. "Very."

He squeezed me. "Don't be. You get to meet a bunch of fans and other Youtubers. Caspar's going to be there and I know he's excited to see you."

"Is this how you calm me down? With promises of South Africans?" I asked.

He smiled. "Works every time."

I grinned and shoved him gently.

"Ready to go?" He asked. "It's going to take about two hours to get there."

I stared up at him. "But Anaheim is like 30 miles?"

"Traffic is a bitch." He said.

I grabbed my cell phone and the lanyard and pass for VidCon I'd recieved a week before. "Let's go."

We left his apartment and went out to the car. I got in the passenger seat and he started up the car.

We drove to Tyler's apartment building to pick him up then went to Starbucks to get coffee, which I so desperately needed.

The nearly two hour drive consisted mainly of shouting dirty jokes, singing loudly to songs on the radio, and a whole lot of laughing. It went by surprisingly fast and suddenly we were parking.

"Oh god." I muttered as we pulled off our seatbelts.

"Calm down. It's gonna be fun." Sawyer assured me.

I nodded and got out of the car.

I immediately clung to Sawyer's arm and Tyler held my free hand. A few security guards greeted us and escorted us inside.

There were a lot of fans outside that spotted us and swarmed around.

I heard people screaming for Sawyer and Tyler and people were even calling out for me.

Some girl shouted "Sofia, you look so pretty!"

I flashed her a smile and waved to some people before security swept us inside.

Once we were away from the crowd, security backed off.

"Oh my god." I breathed. "That was intense."

Tyler squeezed my hand before giving me a little space.

"Do you know where you're signing at?" Tyler asked.

"My table is right by yours, right?"

He nodded. "Yes. I asked for us to be placed near each other in case you got too freaked out. Do you know when and where your doing fan photos?"

"Yeah. I found it I'm right by the Awesomeness TV set up. Photos are at 2:30. My two meet and greets are 10-noon, then from 4-6. After that I just get to hang out."

Tyler nodded again. "Okay. Good. So you're set."

"It's 9:30 now so you should get over there for meet and greet." Sawyer said and I checked the time on my phone to be sure.

I took a shakey breath and Tyler showed me where to go while Sawyer stayed to get food.

Tyler lead me to a table with a poster of my face set up beside it. "Oh my god. That's me."

He giggled. "Don't be scared. You're going to have so much fun, I promise."

I nodded and sat down behind the table.

A guy who was helping out came over and asked if I needed anything. There was a box of pictures for me to sign for fans and a large box of sharpies. "Could I get a couple bottles of water, maybe?"

He nodded. "Absolutely. I'll bring some right over. Is there a specific brand you would like?"

"Anything is fine. Thank you." I said and he hurried off.

The guy showed up a few seconds later and sat four bottles of water on the table.

"Thank you so much." I said and he smiled before walking away again.

Tyler was now sitting at his own table, just a few feet from my own.

He flashed me a bright smile.

A few security guys were standing by our tables and fans started lining up.

At ten, security allowed them to start coming up to us, one at a time.

I grabbed a stack of picture and a marker.

The first girl that came up to me looked to be about 13. She was really timid but super sweet.

"Hi!" I smiled at her. "What's your name?"

"Hi. I'm Louise. I'm a really big fan!" She said fairly softly.

I smiled bigger and signed a picture. "Thank you so much, Louise."

I handed her the picture and she clutched it to her chest. "Thank you so, so much. Wow."

Security nudged her forward and another girl stepped up. She looked to be about the same age as me.

"Hi!" I grinned.

"Hey." She smiled. "I'm Casey."

"I love that name. When I was little I had a cat named Casey." I told her as I handed her a signed picture.

She laughed. "I actually have a cat named Sophie. I've had her since I was 10."

I smiled. "You should tweet me a picture of her. I'll follow you back, too!"

"Oh my gosh, thank you!" She said before moving on.

The next person to come up was a guy.

"Hey." I greeted.

He was about my age, maybe a little older. "Hi!"

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Alex." He said.

I signed another picture. "What's your favorite video of mine?"

He thought for a second. "Probably the Q&A you did with your cat."

I smiled. "That's my favorite too."

He took the picture I held out. "Can I have a hug?"

"Sure!" I stood up and leaned over the table to give him a quick hug.

After a second he stepped away and another girl stepped forward.

That continued for two hours before security told the rest of the fans in line that the meet and greet was over.

They groaned and whined.

I stood up and called out. "Hey, guys! Don't worry. I'm doing another meet and greet here at 4. And I'm doing photos at 2:30 over by the AwesomenessTV set!"

Tyler pulled me away from our meet and greet to go find Sawyer. I saw him and ran over. He pulled me into a tight hug. "How what your first meet and greet?"

"It was so much fun!" I admitted.

He squeezed me. "See! I told you you would like it."

I giggled. "Is it lunch time?"

Tyler laughed. "Yes. Finally."

"Want to go to Starbucks and get some coffee and muffins?" Sawyer offered.

I placed a hand on my chest and groaned. "I would kill for a muffin."

He laughed at how dramatic it was and we followed him outside.

When I stepped outside into the parking lot, I saw a tall boy standing a few feet away. He was trying to read something on his cellphone screen.

"Kian?" I called and his head snapped up.

"Sof!" He called back when he realized it was me. He ran over and scooped me up into a hug. "Hey. It's so good to finally meet you, babe."

"You, too. Texting just isn't enough." I said when he set me back onto my feet.

"So, what are you guys doing?" He asked.

"We're going to Starbucks to get food." I said. "Do you want to come with us?"

He smiled. "Sure."

We followed Sawyer to his car because I had absolutely no clue where he'd parked.

Tyler called shotgun so I sat in the backseat with Kian.

"So what do you think? Is your first VidCon all you imagined it would be?" Kian asked, bumping my knee with his.

I chewed my lip. "It's a bit nerve wracking, honestly. But it really is amazing. I didn't expect so many people would come to meet me."

"How many showed up for that first M&G?" He asked.

"I don't know. Like, 200 people." I quessed.

"Wow. That's good for someone's first VidCon appearance." He said.

I giggled. "It's so cool. I'm excited for the pictures later."

We pulled up at Starbucks a few minutes later and went inside. I quickly ordered my drink and a blueberry muffin.

While I was waiting, I checked a few unread texts from my friends and one from my mom.

"Uh, Sofia?" A quiet voice said.

I looked up and saw a girl who looked to be about my age standing a few feet away, clutching her iPhone tightly in her shaking hand. "Hi."

"Um, I was wondering if I could get a picture with you? I'm a really big fan. You're my favorite Youtuber." She said.

I smiled brightly. "Get over here. Of course I'll take a picture with you."

She grinned and unlocked her phone.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and she snapped a picture of us.

"Can we do a silly one?" She asked.

I nodded. "Yes. Absolutely. I love looking like an idiot."

I stuck my tongue out of the corner of my lips and crossed my eyes.

She took another picture of us and I gave her a hug when she thanked me.

She thanked me a couple more times before following another girl out the door.

The barista called out my name and I stepped forward to get my food. The boys got their own orders a minute later and we sat down at a table in the corner.

I was about halfway done with my muffin when I heard a loud shriek. Everyone jumped, including myself.

A girl sprinted towards our table, her eyes locked on Kian.

"Ohmygod." She breathed. "Kian, oh my god, I love you so much!"

He gave her a small smile but he was taken aback by the abruptness of it all.

She asked for a hug and a picture which he granted her. She was squealing the whole time. When that was all done, she ran away quickly, her face was a bright red.

"She seemed happy." I commented.

Kian chuckled. "The obsessive ones scare me sometimes."

I nodded. "Makes sense."

Everyone finished eating and I got another coffee before we went to leave.

It was 1:20 when we got back to VidCon so Kian had to hurry to his meet and greet. But Sawyer, Tyler, and I didn't have anything to do yet. So we went to what Sawyer referred to as a chill room and sat down. A few other Youtubers were sitting around in a group but I didn't know any of them very well so we didn't approach them.

We sat and talked until Sawyer and Tyler had to go to their second meet and greets at two. So I had thirty minutes left before I had to go take pictures.

To avoid looking too lame for sitting alone, I pulled out my vell phone and started scrolling through tumblr.

"Hi, Sofia." A male voice said I looked up from my phone.

My breath caught. "Hey."

"Mind if I sit with you?" He asked, looking at the open seat on the lounge beside me.

"Go ahead." I said.

Holy shit. Cameron Dallas was sitting right fucking next to me.

I took a deep breath.

"Having fun?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yes. So much fun."

"This is your first real Youtube meet up isn't it?"

I nodded again. "First Youtuber meet up in general."

"How are you liking the States?"

I chuckled. "Um, it's definitely different... But it's really fun and everyone has been super nice and California is gorgeous, I mean, what I've seen. I love it, honestly. It's more exciting than Bowen, that's for sure."

"Not a lot going on in Oz?" He joked.

I shook my head and smiled. "Not really. I mean, other than the occaisionoal baby being eaten by a dingo."

A laugh burst from his lips and he gave me a huge smile. "Everyone's right. You're just as funny as your videos. They seemed to leave out the fact that you're prettier in person."

I blushed. "Oh, um, thanks. I like your videos. And your Vines kill me."

He smiled. "Thanks. You don't really Vine a lot, do you?"

I shook my head. "A few times here or there. I usually stick with normal videos and instagram."

"Yeah, you post really great pictures on there. The one you posted on the plane ride her was gorgeous." He said.

"Oh, the one out the window of the plane?" I asked.

"I meant the selfie. But the one out the window was pretty cute too." He winked.

"You know, I had some friends warn me about your flirting." I said.

His eyebrows went up. "Is that so?"

I nodded.

He grinned. "it's purely friendly. I'm not looking to date right now."

I nodded. "Agreed."

"Unless it's Connor Franta, right?" He teased.

I covered my face with my hands. "Does everyone know about that?!"

He laughed. "Youtube is not a good website for secret keeping."

I groaned. "Ughhhhh."

Cam laughed lightly and patted my leg.

I lifted my head and saw the clock on the wall. It was already 2:20.

"Shit." I muttered, jumping up. "I have pictures in ten minutes, so I have to go."

"Do you want me to walk you?" He asked.

"Would you?" I asked, feeling relieved I wouldn't have to run over by myself.

He nodded and grabbed my hand. "Come on."

Cam knew his way around better than I did so I followed him the whole way and since I didn't have to wander around looking for the right place to go, we got there with five minutes to spare.

Security told me to wait behind this curtain thing, that I would be announced, and when they said my name, I would come out and take pictures and stuff.

Cam stood with me while I was waiting. "Don't be nervous. Pictures are the easiest."

I nodded a little too quickly.

"They're going to love you. They already love you, that's why they're here."

I exhaled slowly. "Yeah. You're right. I'm not going to make myself look like an idiot. They already know I'm an idiot."

He laughed. "See, that's the spirit."

I smacked his shoulder. "Shut up."

He grinned and a guy working came up and told me I had thirty seconds before I had to go out.

My heart started racing. "Do I look okay?"

Cam nodded. "You look perfect."

I smiled and blushed.

When I heard my name from outside, I turned to Cam for a quick hug before stepping out through the curtain. The fans screamed and I smiled and waved before stepping in front of the backdrop.

It started right away. People filed forward one at a time. I hugged each one and thanked them for coming before posing. The photographer snapped a picture of us and the person moved on.

This was a lot quicker than the first time. There was nothing to sign and I didn't get much of a chance to really talk to anyone, which was unfortunate. I liked talking to the fans and it kind of sucked not being able to.

This time, in the span of an hour, I hugged and took pictures with probably 150 fans.

Security ushed me away when the hour was up and took me back to my meet and greet table.

The same guy who'd brought me water before came running up with four more bottles of water since I'd finished all of the ones I had at the first M&G.

"Oh, hi, thanks!" I said to him with a big smile.

Tyler was already signing at the table beside mine and he gave me a quick wave.

I sat down behind the table like I had before. Security was already standing at each end of the table.

"We can, like, start early." I said.

A guy shook his head. "We're actually not allowed to do that."

I frowned. "Oh, sorry."

While I was waiting, I scrolled through twitter on my phone. The girl I'd met earlier had tweeted me a picture of her and her cat so I followed her back like I'd promised. The girl from Starbucks had also tweeted me the pictures we took together and I followed her as well.

Then it was time for people to start coming up so I slid my phone into my pocket and grabbed some more pictures.

This meet and greet when just like the first one did, if anything it actually went a little better.

Tyler waited at his table until I was done and then we went to find Sawyer again. He'd just finished up taking pictures.

"We're done." I sighed and leaned against Sawyer. "And I'm exhausted."

He laughed and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. "Did you have fun today, Sof?"

"I had so much fun!" I squealed.

Tyler pulled us to a stop before we reached the door. "Sawyer, we have to introduce Sofia to more people. We can't leave yet."

"Can I meet Shane and Grace?" I asked, referring to Shane Dawson and Grace Helbig.

Sawyer nodded. "Of course, come on."

He pulled me towards another one of the chill rooms and I followed him inside. It was a bit darker inside so it took a second for my eyes to adjust but I saw Grace standing across the room by the table, getting a bottle of something from a tub of ice.

Sawyer pulled me over. "Hey, Grace! I've got a friend here you might want to meet."

She looked over. "Hi!"

I smiled at her. "Hey, Grace!"

"Sofia! I didn't even see you behind Sawyer. You're shorter than I expected, but hi!"

I laughed and we hugged briefly.

"I'm a big fan." She admitted. "I may or may not watch your first day in America vlog everyday becuase it's really funny."

I laughed. "I didn't realize so many people would find my confusion to American traditions so funny. I just... You guys do shit really fucking different here."

She grinned. "I can only imagine how confused I would be if I went to Australia."

"You should go if you get the chance. It is really gorgeous." I said.

She nodded. "I want to go. We should get a group together and we can all go and you can like, show us around."

"Honestly, I've only ever been to Bowen. I went to Sydney and Perth when I was like five but I don't remember it... But that's really it. We stayed close to home, usually." I explained.

"It would still be so fun. It would new for all of us." He said. "The four of us could all go."

I smiled. "This is definitely a good group."

Someone called Grace's name from across the room. "I've gotta go. Sawyer, give her my number."

Sawyer nodded.

"Text me?" She asked.

I nodded. "Duh."

She smiled and waved before hurrying away.

"I love everyone." I said.

"Everyone loves you." Someone whispered in my ear and I jumped and spun around.

Shane Dawson stood there with a weird smile on his face.

I laughed. "Holy fuck, you scared the shit out of me."

He held his arms out and I gave him a hug.

"You're fucking tall." I stated.

He laughed. "I'm not that tall. You're just at perfect dick sucking height. It's a blessing for you, really."

I snorted. "Is that why I'm so short? So I can suck dicks? Someone should warn my parents."

"I'll call your mom, if you'd like." Sawyer offered.

"Do it and die." I threatened and he put his phone away.

I giggled. "Today is the best day ever."

"Because I told you you're head is at dick level. Sofia, honey, I was making a joke, please don't start sucking dicks. Just make Youtube videos, you're good at that." Shane said, his voice high with mock concern. "Sweetie, whoring is not a good lifestyle choice. Believe me, okay? It's so hard to get out of."

I laughed even harder. "You're fucking killing me right now. Oh my god."

He gave me another creepy smile and muttered. "I like them dead..."

"This shit just comes naturally to you and I love it."

He laughed shrugged. "It's a skill."

Tyler tapped Shane's shoulder and gestured for him to lean down.

He whispered something into Shane's ear. I didn't know what he said but Shane smiled. "Can I watch?"

I stepped back. "What are we doing? Sawyer, help."

"We have to show you something!" Tyler giggled and grabbed my wrist, pulling me through a doorway and into another room.

I followed him despite the fact that I was fairly nervous.

I saw a group of boys and I recognized Kian, JC, and Ricky from O2L.

Kian gave me a smile since I'd already seen him before but JC and Ricky immediately pulled me into a hug.

"Hey, guys!" I said.

They squeezed me. I was squished between them but it was okay. A friend sandwich is not a bad thing, ever.

"We went looking for you earlier when Kian said he'd met you but we couldn't find you." Ricky said.

"I'm sorry! I was taking pictures." I said.

JC scoffed sarcastically. "Fuck pictures. We're cooler."

I giggled. "I don't know. I think it's a pretty close tie."

He tugged one of my honey blond curls gently. "That's a lie.'

I shrugged. "Maybe it is. Maybe it isn't."

He smiled and glanced back over his shoulder before turning his attention back to me.

"Have you met Connor yet?" He asked with a smirk.

"Shut up." I smacked his arm. "I'm too nervous."

"Connor's probably thinking the same thing." Ricky said.

"What's Connor thinking?" A voice asked from a few feet behind JC and Ricky.

I tensed up. It was Connor, I would recognize that voice anywhere.

"That you could go for a cup of coffee right about now." Kian jumped in and I shot him a thankful smile.

I heard Connor laugh. "Definitely."

"Why don't you guys go out and get some coffee together since you're too young to come drink with the rest of us?" Sawyer suggested.

"Wait, you guys? Who am I going with?" Connor asked.

He still hadn't seen me since my small frame was hidden behind JC and Ricky.

"You're going with Sofia!" JC said.

I stared up at him, slightly angry. I was not at all prepared to go out with Connor alone, or at all, really.

"She's here?" Connor asked, sounding a bit... Excited? Maybe. It was hard to tell.

JC and Ricky stepped out of the way and Connor and I met eyes immediately.

He broke into a grin and I couldn't help but return the smile.

Neither of us made a move to get any closer to each other though. Our feet stayed firm where they were but we didn't look away from each other.

He looked better in person.

"Are you gonna hug or just stand there like dorks?" Sawyer said.

I wanted to shoot him a dirty look but I couldn't tear my dark green eyes away from Connor's lighter green ones.

I felt a hand press into my lower back and shove me forward.

I stumbled a few steps closer to Connor and finally turn to flip JC off. He just smiled at me and nodded, encouraging me to move forward.

Connor held his arms out and closed the distance between us.

His strong arms looped around my waist and I stretched onto my toes, hooking my arms behind his neck.

His forehead rested against my shoulder and I buried my face in his neck.

"This day just got a million times better." He whispered.

I giggled. "I agree."

Through closed eyelids, I noticed a flash and opened my eyes immediately.

Kian, Sawyer and Tyler all had their phones out and had snapped pictures.

I shook my head slightly but closed my eyes.

Connor's arms were still locked around my waist.

He loosened his grip and I rested back on my heels and smiled up at him.

"You down to go get some coffee with me?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, of course."

He grinned and grabbed my hand.

"Just bring her back to my place whenever you're done making out or whatever." Sawyer said as Connor tugged me outside.

I flipped Sawyer off and followed Connor to his car.

He opened the passenger side door for me and I slid in with a thank you and he shut the door softly before running around the front of the car to get in the driver's seat.

When he got in the car he handed me the adapter for the radio. "Play whatever you want. I've watched your videos long enough to know you've got great music taste."

I smiled and plugged my phone in. I scrolled through my music until I found what I was looking for and clicked play.

The music came on really quietly and Connor turned the radio up.

"God, I love Incubus." He said when he heard the intro to Stellar.

I grinned. "Same."

"Do you want to go into Starbucks or do you just want to go through the drive through and we can cruise around for a while?" He asked.

"I haven't gotten the chance to cruise around really at all since I've been here so I'm definitely down for that." I said.

"I feel like driving around and talking is a good way to bond, too." He said.

I nodded. "Totally. Like, what's a better way to get to know someone than to trust them to keep you alive while rolling around in a giant metal death machine?"

He laughed. "I agree. I promise not to kill you in this giant metal death machine."

"I appreciate that." I said.

He smiled and pulled into the Starbucks drive through. "What do you want?"

"Ummm. Venti iced caramel macchiato." I said and he ordered that and his own drink.

When we pulled up to the window I reached into my pocket and handed him what I owed him. He waved my hand away and pulled his wallet out.

"Connor, if I knew you were going to insist on paying I wouldn't have ordered such an exspensive drink." I whined.

"Just shut up and drink it." He said and handed me the coffee.

I sighed and took a sip.

"How does it taste?" He asked as we pulled away.

"Like I owe you money." I stated.

He rolled his eyes playfully. "It's a couple dollars. Don't even worry about it."

"Fine." I sighed and took another drink.

"You're going to try to find some way to pay me back aren't you?" He asked when I stayed silent.

I nodded and he laughed. "Seriously, Sofia, it doesn't even matter. I'm just happy I'm finally like, meeting you and talking to you."

I blushed.

"It's unfortunate you're not legal." He muttered.

"Tell me about it." I sighed. "Tyler had to throw it in my face that I'm too young."

He chuckled a little. "Sounds like Tyler."

I smiled. "He's my best friend though. Him and Sawyer."

"Do your parents think it's weird that you're friends with them are they're like 22?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Not really. Dad was a little concerned in the beginning, you know. Mostly about Sawyer. He knew Tyler was gay so that didn't bother him. But he thought Sawyer was going to try something or whatever. Once he actually met Sawyer and realized we're literally _just _friends, it didn't matter. He's fine with it. And Mum loves both of them so that's not really a concern."

"It's nice that they trust you so much. I mean, letting you stay with Tyler and Sawyer and go all the way to Anaheim with them. It's what, like, two hours from Anaheim to San Diego?"

"About. Two, two and half hours. Depends on traffic which usually blows." I said.

"Right? It's like 'Oh, I'm going to this place that's like ten miles away but it's going to take me and hour to get there."

"Yes! Exactly. Mum took me to the mall in San Diego and it was like five miles and it took like twenty minutes to get there. I would've rather walked. Speaking of walking, there's an In-N-Out like four blocks from my house and it's not going well for me. It's actually ruining me."

"But you know you won't stop going. You can't. It's not humanly possible to just stop going to In-N-Out. And having one so close is like putting a diabetic in a room full of Twinkies." He said.

I laughed. "But it really is. Sometimes I think that maybe I shouldn't go get an 3x3 Animal Style with a neopolitan shake, but guess what?"

"You go get a 3x3 Animal Style with a neopolitan shake?"

"With fries! It's awful. I'm an awful person. I have no self-discipline. I am a mess." I joked.

He laughed. "Sometimes I want to like, live off of In-N-Out and I realized if I did that, I would weigh like 300 pounds."

"First world problems." I said and he grinned.

"Have you been to Signal Hill? Hilltop Park, specifically?" He asked suddenly.

I shook my head. "Never even heard of it."

"Oh my god. It's an hour drive both ways from here but it's got this incredible view. It's absolutely beautiful and everyone needs to see it at one point in their life. Can I take you?"

I bit my lip. "Um, yeah, why not?"

He smiled and sped up. "You're going to love it. It has the best view of the city and it's amazing to just go there and sit and look, especially at night."

"It sounds great." I said.

The whole way there we kept talking about some of the best views we'd seen and singing along to Incubus songs.

Connor pulled the car over about an hour later and we got out. It was already starting to get dark and you could see the city really light up.

"There's a bit of a walk to the top but it's more than worth it." Connor said, pointing up a hill that was pretty tall but not too steep.

"Let's go." I said.

He grabbed my hand and we started the trek to the top. Honestly, we nearly ran the whole way up and got to the top in a matter of minutes.

We walked over to a bench and sat down, overlooking the city. You could see everything, every city around you. It was as beautiful as Connor said, if not more.

"Wow." I whispered. "It really is amazing."

He smiled. "You like it?"

I nodded. "I love it."

I could feel his eyes on me and I shivered.

He slung his arm around my shoulders and pulled me into his side.

My head rested against his shoulder and I stared at the view.

Connor whispered "I could get used to this."

I smiled.

"Me, too, Connor."

~!Author's Note!~ Dawwww. Dat's cute, right? Anyways, this was suuuuper long but I really like it and i hope you guys do too. Please review and let me know what y'all think. I love you loads. -Aly.


	3. We Can Snuggle

"Connor?" I cried into the phone.

"Sofia, what's wrong? I just dropped you off twenty minutes ago. What the hell happened?" He asked.

I sobbed. "Dad caught me sneaking back in, again. And he kicked me out."

I heard the screech of brakes being slammed from the other end of the phone and then the squeal of rubber spinning.

"I'm coming back." He said.

"Thank you." I whispered. "I-I'm outside by the curb. I got a few bags that I packed."

"Do you want me to stay on the phone with you until I get there?" He asked.

"Please." I said.

"Where are you wanting to stay? I'm not sure there's a load of room at the O2L house but we could figure something out, I guess." He said.

"I texted Tyler. He said I can stay with him." I explained.

"Okay. Do you want to stay with me tonight and I'll take you to Tyler's tomorrow?" He asked.

I nodded and realized he couldn't see me. "Yeah, yeah. That sounds fine."

I sobbed and sat down on the edge of the curb, pulling my legs to my chest and wrapping my arm around them. I leaned my forehead against my knees and tried to calm down.

"Sof?" Connor said softly.

"Yeah?"

"It's going to be okay. You know that, right?"

I shivered. God, it was freezing and I was not dressed properly. "Yeah, yeah. I know."

"I'm almost there." He said.

"How far?" I asked.

"I will be there in literally a minute."

I shivered again. "Okay. Thanks."

"Don't even worry about it. I would've driven all the way from LA if I had to." He said.

I smiled for just a second.

A few seconds later, I saw lights out of the corner of my eye and heard the familiar sound of tires on gravel.

Connor pulled to a stop right in front of me and got out of the car.

I didn't even look up when I saw his Vans in front of me.

He knelt down in front of me and I finally met his eyes. He looked a little blurry through the tears and I shivered again.

"Are you cold?" He asked and I nodded.

One of his arms went around my waist and he pulled me to my feet and he put me in the passenger seat of the car.

I was still crying as he loaded my five suitcases into the backseat.

When he walked around the car and slid into the driver's seat, I had my head in my hands and was shaking with sobs.

He must've noticed the goosebumps that still covered my bare shoulders because he shrugged out of his flannel and draped it over my shoulders.

"This outfit isn't seeming like the good idea it was when you first came to get me." I said, sitting back in the seat. "But thanks for the shirt."

He smiled and shifted the car into drive. "If we're being completely honest, I like the outfit."

I blushed. "Thanks."

It was easily one of my favorite outfits I'd put together. I was wearing a black, strapless, bubble cropped top with an aztec print, ripped up black denim shorts, light blue vans, a black and blue Diamond Supply Company beanie, my favorite silver cross necklace, and my small white purse was still slung across my shoulders. My blond hair had been up in a neat bun but I'd taken it down and it fell messy and curly down my back. My once perfect black eyeliner and pink eye shadow was now smeared and ran down my cheeks and my pink lipstick had worn off.

The outfit was well put together but my head was a mess.

It was quiet for a minute, the only sound was the engine.

I picked at my black and pink sparkly nail polish an stared out the window.

"What are you thinking?" Connor asked.

"I don't think I'll be coming back to San Diego anytime." I stated.

His right hand reached across the console and grabbed my left hand.

He gave my hand a tight squeeze. "It's alright. Your real family is in LA."

I looked up at him. "Can I tell you something?"

"Of course you can. Tell me whatever you want."

"Throughout the past year, ever since we met at VidCon, you've been better to me than my parents. Mum wasn't all the bad, just distant. But Dad was awful. He basically started hating me when I said I didn't need a real job because the whole YouTube thing was going well and I mean, we get money for that shit. But that's not that point. Whenever I was sad, you would notice just by the way I would act when we texted and my parents couldn't even say it when I was sitting across the table from them."

Connor squeezed my hand and his green eyes left the road for a second to glance at me. "I knew your parents didn't really look out for you and someone had to. I was more than happy to take up that position. You're one of my best friends, Sof."

I felt an odd burst of confidence and leaned over the console to kiss his cheek.

"What was that for?" He asked, a small blush lit up his cheeks.

"For being one of _my _best friends." I said.

He glanced at me again and smiled but didn't say anything.

"Are we almost there?" I asked, looking at the nearly empty road in front of us.

"It's a two hour drive. We have been in the car for roughly thirty minutes." He chuckled.

I groaned and stifled a yawn.

"Go to sleep." He said.

"Are you sure you won't get tired and fall asleep and kill us?" I asked.

He laughed. "It's only three am. I've got a few more hours left in me, easily."

I smiled. "Fair enough."

I leaned the seat back a little and rested my head against the back. Apparently I was more tired than I realized because I fell asleep within minutes.

Two strong arms slid under me, one beneath my knees, the other under the small of my back. My head fell onto someone's shoulder and I heard a car door being shut softly.

I heard the jingle of keys and the sound of a door being opened, then shut, and feet on hardwood steps.

Another door opened, shut, and then I felt myself being placed on a soft mattress.

By this point I'd woken up a bit and I opened my eyes to see Connor place one of my bags on the floor beside his desk.

I propped myself up on my elbow and he turned to look at me.

He gave me a small smile. "Hey."

"Hi." I grumbled.

I stepped off the bed and grabbed my bag.

"I gotta change." I muttered and pulled out the first pair of shorts and tank top I found.

I shuffled into the bathroom at the end of the hall and locked the door.

I kicked off my Vans before pulling down my shorts and tugging my top up over my head. I folded the clothes on the counter and slipped into the clothes I'd grabbed.

Because of how drowsy I was, I hadn't noticed that I'd grabbed my tiny black spanks and a very tight purple tank top.

"Fuck it." I muttered and pulled the clothes on.

I grabbed my clothes and shoes and walked back down the hall to Connor's room. I knocked on the door to make sure I wouldn't walk in on him changing.

"Come in." He said quietly and I walked inside.

He was sitting at his desk in a pair of basketball shorts and no shirt. God, he had a great body.

I shuffled across the room, dropped my clothes in my bag, and slid into bed, pulling the blanket around my shoulders.

I saw Connor scrolling through his tumblr dash and felt the urge to get my laptop and check my own tumblr.

"You're making me crave the internet." I mumbled.

Connor laughed and spun his desk chair to face me. "Honestly, I was just checking a couple things. I was going to put on a movie. Is there anything you wanted to watch? Or do you just want to go back to sleep?"

I shook my head. "I'm kind of awake now. I know you've been obsessed with American Horror Story recently. Want to watch a couple episodes?"

"First or second season?" He asked.

"First." I said.

He turned back to the screen. "Honestly, the first season is way better than the second. I mean, Asylum was great, but Murder House is fantastic."

"Don't you mean Frantastic?" I teased.

He laughed. "That is exactly what I meant."

He pulled up the first episode of season one before angling the screen towards the bed a little better. He switched the desk lamp off and crawled into the bed beside me.

Connor was careful not to get too close considering we'd never laid in bed together before.

"We can snuggle if you want." I said and I heard him chuckle before draping his arm across my thin waist and pulling me back against his chest.

After a couple of episodes, I heard Connor's breathing become even and I turned my head to see him sleeping calmly.

I snuggled closer to his chest and shut my eyes. I was asleep just a few minutes later.

"Sof?" A stong hand shook my shoulder gently.

I rolled away from the hand and curled up in a ball, burying my head in the pillow.

That was when it occured to me that I was not in my own bed. This bed didn't smell like lavender and vanilla and sugar like mine, it smelled like a mixture of cologne and body wash that I had fallen in love with, it smelled like Connor.

I felt the bed dip down behind me. "Sofia, babe, wake up. It's already 2pm, you need to get up."

I groaned and opened my eyes slowly, squinting at the bright light coming through the window. "Ew, brightness."

Connor laughed as I threw my hand over my eyes.

"When did you wake up?" I asked him.

"About two hours ago." He said.

"You could've woke me up sooner so I wasn't hogging your bed." I said.

He shrugged. "It seemed like you could use the sleep."

Then I remembered what had happened the night before. I remembered I wouldn't be going home again.

Tears welled in my eyes but I fought them away.

When I was sure I wasn't going to start sobbing, I turned to face Connor.

He'd obviously noticed my eyes well up because he smiled sadly and I felt the tears form all over again.

"It's okay to cry." He said.

I shook my head. "I know it's okay to cry. I just don't want to."

He grabbed my hand and squeezed, I squeezed back.

My phone which was laying on the desk, I start singing Lady Gaga to me and I groaned. "It's too early for Bloody Mary."

Connor reached over and grabbed my phone and handed it to me.

I typed in my passcode and hit answer. "Hey, Tyler."

"How are you?" He asked immediately. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I stayed with Connor last night. I'll be over to your place in a little while." I said.

"Oh, you stayed with Connor?" He asked.

"Don't go there." I said.

He laughed. "I'm not going anywhere. I'm just saying Sofnor is my OTP."

I rolled my eyes. "You're a fucking dork."

He laughed again. "Just hurry up and get your ass over here."

"I literally just woke up. I need food and twelve cups of coffee and time to figure out what my life is." I said.

"Well do it and come over." Tyler said.

I smiled. "I'll try."

"Okay. Bye."

"Bye. I'll see you soon."

We hung up and I locked my screen.

"Is your lock screen one of our selfies?" Connor asked.

I nodded. "Yeah. The one we took the day after VidCon."

He smiled. "I like that."

I smiled back. "Me too."

"Get dressed and we can go to Starbucks or In-n-Out." Connor said.

"Is both an option? Because I need a burger and a grande white chocolate mocha."

"Of course. As long as you get dressed."

I laughed and got up.

I sat down on the floor where Connor had placed my bag and dug around to find some clothes. After a few minutes I decided to just slip on a pair of denim shorts, a slouchy black tank top, and some pink flip flops. I took the clothes to the bathroom and slipped them on before tying my hair up in the neatest ponytail I could manage and walking back into Connor's room.

He'd put on a tshirt and some Nike sandals. "Ready?"

I nodded.

He grabbed my bag for me and we walked downstairs.

"Sofia?" JC asked from the lounge.

Ricky, Sam, and Kian immediately looked up from their phones.

"Hi." I waved.

"What are you doing here?" Sam asked.

"Um, well, it's kind of a long story. Basically my parents kicked me out and Connor let me crash in his room for the night. I'm going to stay with Tyler until I'm 18 so I can get my own apartment and stuff." I explained.

Everyone started to get up, probably to give me a hug.

"No." I said almost too quickly. "I just... I'm not in much of a hugging mood."

They all nodded.

"So, uh, we're going to go grab some food and he's going to draw me off at Tyler's." I said.

"Text me." Kian said with a stern tone.

I nodded. "I will. I promise."

Connor lead me outside and I waved bye to everyone.

He put my bag into the backseat of the car and I sat down in the passenger seat.

Connor got in a moment later and started the car.

Since Starbucks was closer, we went there first.

We both got lattes, Connor insisted on paying again. Then he drove to In-N-Out.

I regretted the decision to eat there as soon as we pulled up and I could smell the food. "I can already taste my arteries clogging."

Connor laughed and pulled up to order.

"3x3 animal style with fries?" He asked.

"Aw, you remembered." I laughed and he ordered.

He pulled up to the first window to pay, then a moment later we got our food.

He pulled over at a nearby park so we could eat.

We ate mostly in silence considering we were both starving.

Once we were done, Connor pulled back out onto the road.

I heard the voice of my queen come on the radio and I gasped, turning it up a little.

"Hard to tell you like Lady Gaga." Connor said as I tapped my foot to the beat of Edge Of Glory.

I giggled and began singing along.

I stopped singing when he looked over at me.

"Sorry." I muttered. "I know I'm awful."

"No, actually, you're really good." He said.

"That's entirely false, but thanks anyways." I said.

He shook his head. "You're good, trust me. Way better than me, that's for sure. I have this type of tone deafness where I sound like I'm actually just plain deaf."

I laughed. "You're not _that _bad. You are definitely not a good singer, that is not your strong point. I mean, the times I've heard you sing I didn't feel the need to stab myself in the ears so that's something to be proud of."

"I feel honored." He said.

"You should."

We both started singing along but it was hard to sing because we also kept laughing.

By the time we pulled up at Tyler's house I was clutching my stomach with tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Are you okay?" Connor asked, still laughing himself.

I shook my head and tried to speak. "It... It hu- It hurts."

He laughed harder at the sound of my voice squeaking out between giggles.

"I can't breathe." I wailed a second later and we cracked up harder.

I sat up and wiped tears from my cheeks, trying to catch my breath.

Connor was clutching his side.

I took a shakey breath and nearly burst out laughing again.

"I can't live this way." Connor said and I willed myself not to laugh.

"Shhhhh." I demanded and he started to laugh.

I threw my hands up. "I'm done. I can't do this."

After a few minutes we finally managed to calm down and I opened the door and got out, Connor got out a second later.

I leaned against the side of the car. "Oh goodness."

My stomach honestly hurt from laughing.

"I have abs." I stated.

"It's almost like we didn't eat that In-N-Out." Connor said.

I nodded. "Fair enough."

He helped me grab my bags out of the backseat and we walked up to Tyler's door.

I rang the doorbell and the door flew open a second later.

"Hey!" I smiled at Tyler.

"Hey, guys." He moved out of the way so we could step inside.

Tyler took one of the suitcases Connor had been struggling to hold. It wasn't even that it was heavy, it was just awkward. I was struggled to carry two, Connor had three in his arms.

He showed us to the guest room where we put my bags down and I sat on the edge of the bed.

"Thanks for letting me stay here, Tyler." I said.

"Did you expect me to leave you to live on the streets or something?" He asked.

I laughed. "Hey, I could make it on the streets."

"No you couldn't." Tyler and Connor said at the same moment.

"Rude." I stated.

"I'm going to get a new set of sheets for you, okay?" Tyler said and hurried off.

"I should probably head out." Connor said. "It's Monday so I need to get my video uploaded."

I nodded and stood up off the bed.

There was a slightly awkward pause before I walked over to him and we hugged.

"Thanks." I mumbled against his chest.

He squeezed my shoulders. "You're welcome."

I took a tiny step back, my arms still locked around Connor. "Skype tomorrow?"

He shook his head. "Why skype when we can actually hang out?"

I smiled. "Fair enough."

He leaned down and I expected him to kiss my forehead,which he'd done several times before. But his lips pressed to mine very briefly before he pulled away.

His face was red and I could tell mine was too.

"Sorry, I, uh, I don't know what I was thinking. Sorry." He said and scratched the back of his neck, not meeting my eyes.

I giggled. "It's fine, Connor. More than fine."

"It's just... You're only 17, ya know." He said.

"Guys don't go to jail for kissing 17 year olds." I reminded him.

He laughed a little. "Right. Sorry."

"Stop apologizing, you dork." I said.

"Sorry. Fuck. Sorry. Oh my god."

I laughed. "This whole language thing is not going well for you right now."

"Sorry. Oh my god. Someone stop me."

I laughed again. "Con you not?"

He smiled before saying "I really do need to go."

I nodded and gave him another quick hug. "Text me tomorrow and let me know when you want to hang out."

"I will." He smiled and kissed my forehead.

"Bye." I said as he went to say bye to Tyler.

"See you tomorrow, Sof!" He called.

I fell back onto the bed and clutched a pillow to my chest, the biggest smile plastered onto my face.

"What are you grinning about?" Tyler asked and placed a stack of sheets beside me.

"He kissed me."

~!Hey, guys. I hope you liked this chapter. It was kind of rushed but I wanted to update soon. Let me know what you think, alright? Love you. -Aly!~


	4. Poolside Heart To Heart

(**Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault/Self harm. **_I know this kind of ruins the surprise in the chapter but I don't know what my readers are going through/have gone through and I didn't want to take the chance of this chapter triggering or upsetting someone. Also, if you guys ever need to talk to someone about anything, literally anything, just send me a message and I'll be there. I love you. Enjoy the chapter._)

"So are you and Connor a thing now?" Sawyer asked.

I shook my head. "No. I don't think so anyways. I mean, we kissed for like half a second, if that."

"Do you want to be with him?"

I wailed "I don't know!"

I leaned forward and rested my forehead against my knees.

Sawyer sat down on the lounge next to me and rubbed my back. "Is this really stressing you out?"

"Yes!" I whined.

"I know just what will help." He said.

"What?" I asked.

"Do you want to go to a party?"

I looked up at him. "What kind of party?"

He rolled his eyes. "You know damn well what kind of party I'm talking about. JC and Kian are throwing it."

"Kian texted me about it. I don't know if I really want to go." I said.

"Come on. It's going to be so much fun."

Finally I nodded. "Yeah, okay."

"Do you have something to wear?" He asked, looking at the sweats I was in.

"Not, like, a dress. I don't really want to wear a dress." I said.

"Wear jeans and a cool shirt." He offered.

I nodded.

He stood up, pulling me with him. "I'll take you back to Tyler's so you can get dressed. Tyler's going to the party too so you can just ride with him and I'll meet you there, alright?"

"Sounds fine." I said.

Sawyer drove me back to mine and Tyler's place and I hurried inside.

"Tyler!" I shouted when I walked in the door.

"Yeah?" He called from the kitchen.

"Come help me get dressed for JC and Kian's party!" I shouted back, already in my room.

He came in a few seconds later. "What did you have in mind?"

"Jeans and a cool shirt. Maybe shorts, I don't know." I said, tearing through the clothes in my closet.

I pulled out a tie dyed cropped top and held it up. "This?"

"That's actually really freaking cute." Tyler said.

I peeled off the tank top I was wearing and pulled the tshirt on.

I dug around a little more and pulled out a pair of black, ripped up skinny jeans, and a pair of denim shorts with a white lace detail at the bottom. "Which ones?"

"Shorts. You have great legs, show them off!"

I dropped my sweats and pulled the shorts up my legs and buttoned them.

"I'm wearing heels because I'm short as fuck and I don't even care." I said and pulled a pair of white high heels from the back of closet.

I stepped into them and walked over to my dresser. I slipped on my black and silver bangle set and a silver cross double ring. I kept my blond hair straight, did a smokey black eye look, and a sparkly pink lipstick.

I fluffed my hair and turned to Tyler. "Is this okay?"

"You are the cutest thing I have ever seen." He said and I grinned.

"I'm going to get dressed. As soon as I'm ready, we'll leave, okay?" He said.

I nodded.

Tyler went to his room to get dressed and I sat down in the living room.

I sent Kian a text, letting him know that I would be attending the party that night and he sent back a smiley face.

"Are you ready?" Tyler asked.

I nodded and stood up.

I skipped out to the car and got in. Tyler was in the driver's seat a second later.

The drive went by really quickly and when we pulled up to the O2L house, I realized how nervous I was. Connor had kissed me three days prior, and we hadn't talked about the kiss or anything since then and I felt like it would be awkard when we saw each other.

"Are you coming?" Tyler asked when we got out of the car.

"I'll meet you inside in a minute." I said and he nodded.

I leaned against the car which was parked in the road and pulled out my phone. I typed a message to Sawyer. "I'm outside by Tyler's car. Will you come meet me for a second?"

A moment later, I saw Sawyer come striding across the lawn towards me.

"Your legs are shaking." He pointed out.

I nodded. "I'm nervous."

"Don't be. I talked to Connor a few minutes ago. He wants to talk to you about the kiss, just not tonight. I think he's a little nervous to see you, though."

I chewed the corner of my lip.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Do I look alright? I look awful, don't I? I'm so under dressed. I should've wore a dress or a skirt. Oh my god. I'm so fucking stupid." I said, beginning to ramble.

Sawyer grabbed my shoulders and leaned down, his eyes level with mine. "Breathe. You look fine. No one is going to judge you because basically every single person in that house loves you, the other people just don't know you."

I took a deep breath. "What if I don't know how to dance?"

"You have hips. Use them to your advantage."

I nodded. "Right. Okay. I'm fine. It's fine."

Sawyer wrapped his arm around my shoulders and guided me into the house.

We walked through the front door and I heard the song Can't Hold Us by Macklemore playing. I smiled just a bit, Can't Hold Us was easily my favorite song on the radio.

Kian saw me and weaved through the large crowd and pulled me into a hug.

"I'm happy you could make it." He shouted over the music.

"Me too!" I shouted back.

"Do you want a drink?" He asked.

I nodded and he guided me towards the kitchen.

The music was a bit more quiet in there and I could hear Kian without him having to shout.

"What do you want to drink?" He asked, the counter was lined with different bottles of liquor, some I'd never even heard of.

"Can I make something?" I asked.

He nodded and handed me a red cup. "Do you know how to mix drinks?"

"Yeah. You pour it in the cup and you drink it." I stated and he laughed.

I grabbed a bottle of tequila, filled the cup about a quarter of the way, grabbed Kahlua, filled it to about three fourths of the way, and splashed a little bit of orange juice in before swirling the cup around to mix it.

"What kind of drink is that?" Kian asked.

I shrugged and took a sip. "I don't know what it's called but it tastes fantastic. Olivia used to make them all the time. Try some."

I held out the cup and he took a small drink. "Oh shit. That's really strong but really good."

I smiled and Kian grabbed my hand, pulling me back towards the party.

JC saw me and waved and I waved back.

"There's someone I want you to meet." Kian said and pulled me towards the opposite end of the room.

His eyes were set on a tall, thin girl leaned against the wall, talking to a guy that looked vaguely familiar.

"Oria!" Kian called and the girl looked over with a bright smile.

We stopped a few feet away, she towered over me, she had to be about 5'9" without her heels and she was super thin.

"Sofia, this is Oria Royce. Oria, this is Sofia." Kian introduced.

We shook hands and smiled at each other.

"You do beauty videos, right?" I asked her.

She nodded. "I do."

"I think I've seen a couple of your makeup and hair tutorials. You're really good with that stuff." I said.

"Thanks!" She grinned. Her teeth were blinding. "I've seen a couple of your videos too. I don't typically watch normal videos though, mostly more beauty stuff."

I nodded. "I'm basically the exact opposite. I watch mainly funny videos but I do tend to venture towards the beauty side on occaision."

Her white blond (and bleached, I'd figured) hair fell across her tiny shoulders in tight curls and her make up looked gorgeous. I was a little jealous.

Her dress was tight and pink and undoubtedly designer, just like the clutch purse that hung off her wrist, and the heels that were strapped to her feet.

The boy standing next to her stepped forward. He was about the same height as Kian, with light brown hair, very dark brown eyes, and a killer smile. He was thin but muscular. There was no denying that he was hot.

"I'm Oria's boyfriend, Derrick." He introduced himself and held out his hand.

His large hand swallowed my tiny one as we shook hands.

"Derrick Mitchell, right?" I asked.

He nodded.

"I saw your video on what not to do on a date." I said. "I basically pissed myself laughing."

He grinned. "You're about the only one. Everyone else got offended."

"By what? Saying you don't like when girls act like complete sluts on the first date? It makes sense. It's the first date, don't throw your vagina in someone's face." I said and he laughed.

"See, that's what I thought. Apparently people don't agree."

I shrugged. "Fuck 'em."

He laughed again. "I like you. You're chill."

I smiled. "Aw, why, thank you."

"Hey, Sof." Kian said, his lips right by my ear.

"Yeah?" I asked, turning to look at him.

He was staring at something/someone to my left and I followed his eyes to see Connor standing about ten feet away.

He was leaned up against the wall with a red cup in his right hand, his phone in his left hand, and a scantily clad girl standing in front of him.

Her hand laid on his shoulder and she laughed overdramatically, leaning over to expose more of her cleavage.

Connor had a polite smile on his face but looked a little annoyed.

"I'll talk to you soon, yeah?" I said to Oria and Derrick.

They nodded and I walked towards Connor, my legs shaking a little.

I stopped a few feet away but he was still staring at his phone, trying to pretend there wasn't a girl basically stripping right in front of him.

I stepped closer and placed my hand on his shoulder, the one that the other girl wasn't latched onto.

He looked up at me and gave me a relieved smile.

"Babe." I said in a cute voice. "I've been looking all over for you."

His eyebrows knitted together in confusion for a fraction of a second before he realized what I was doing.

He slid his phone into his pocket and rested his right hand on my lower back, pulling me a little closer to him. "Sorry, Gianna sort of intercepted me when I was looking for you."

I looked at the girl as if her mere existence annoyed me but faked a smile. "Gianna."

She smiled at me, her hand still on Connor's shoulder. "Hi."

I looked away from her and back to Connor. "Come dance with me, babe?"

"He's talking to me." Gianna said.

My eyes went back to her. "He was talking to you. But seeing as he's my boyfriend, he's going to come dance with me now."

Her smiled faltered and her hand fell from his shoulder. "You didn't say you had a girlfriend."

"I thought everyone knew." He said, his hand slipping lower on my back, dangerously close to my bum.

I stepped closer, pressing myself into his side, and wrapped my arms around his waist. "Everyone should know. We've been together for like, six months."

"Seven months next week." He said.

Gianna walked away, looking more than a little confused.

"Thank you." He said when she was out of earshot.

"Don't mention it." I said, stepping away from him.

His hand didn't leave me back even though I'd stopped touching him.

I took a sip from my drink.

"Do you really want to dance?" He asked.

"Do you want to?"

"Well, if we don't your friend Gianna might get suspicious." He said with a small smirk.

I laughed. "I don't really know how to dance."

"And you think I do?" He challenged.

"Fair enough."

He tugged me towards the dancefloor, which wasn't a dancefloor. It was just where everyone else was dancing.

The song I Wish by Cher Lloyd came on and I smiled, thankful I knew the song. Cher Lloyd was my queen and I'd danced around my room to the song several times.

I let my hips move to the beat and one of my arms hung over Connor's shoulder while I held my drink in my other hand.

I felt eyes on me so I looked around discreetly. My eyes met with Sawyer's who was dancing with a girl across the room. He put one finger in the air and swirled it around.

I wasn't quite sure what he was saying but I spun around, my back to Connor, and glanced back to Sawyer. He gave me a thumbs up and I felt Connor's hands rest on my hips and pull me against him.

We danced together for a few songs before we realized both of our cups were empty so we headed towards the kitchen to get new drinks.

Connor got a beer and I filled my cup with another tequila and Kahlua concoction.

He leaned against the counter while I mixed my drink.

"Do you want to go sit by the pool?" Connor asked when I tasted my drink to see if I needed to added anything, which I didn't.

I looked outside, seeing no one by the pool, which was a bit surprising.

"Yeah, sure." I said and followed him outside.

We sat down on two small lawn chairs by the side of the pool.

It was quiet for a minute. Connor was looking at the moonlight reflecting off the water and I was staring at the stars.

"Do you ever miss Bowen?" He asked suddenly.

"Yeah. All the time." I admitted. "Do you miss Minnesota?"

"Of course. I mean, not Minnesota so much as the people in Minnesota."

"I miss Olivia." I said. "She was my best friend."

"I watched the videos you two did together. If I didn't know better, I would've thought you were sisters. You don't really look alike, but you were so close, it made more sense for you to be sisters than friends."

I nodded. "She basically was my sister."

There were a few seconds of silence.

"Everything's different now." I muttered. "And I'm not sure if I like it or not."

Connor held his hand out to me and I gladly took it.

"There's something I've been meaning to ask you." Connor said. "It's not really my business, and you don't have to answer, I was just wondering."

"Go ahead." I said.

"What happened with that guy you did the boyfriend/girlfriend tag video with?"

"James? Things just didn't work out. I really liked him but it just really was not working. At first things were great, after six months we made that video, then about two months after that he stopped being as cute and romantic and was purely concerned with trying to get me to sleep with him. I was fifteen, I didn't want to have sex yet. He was angry that I wasn't putting out so we broke up." I explained.

"Did you love him?" Connor asked.

I shook my head. "No. I haven't been in love. And I hope I never am."

"You never want to fall in love?"

"Not at all." I said.

"Why's that?" He asked.

I thought for a second. "I'm scared of it. I've seen a lot of people get hurt and I don't want that to be me."

"Who got hurt?"

I gupled down a good portion of my drink before speaking. "My sister. The real one."

"You have a sister?" He asked, a little shocked.

I shook my head once. "Had."

Connor didn't pry, he just watched me, waiting to see if I would speak anymore.

Finally, I continued. "She was four years older than me. I was 12, she was 16. She was dating a guy who was 20, our parents didn't know about it. She'd been with him for like five months, I think. And one night she snuck out to go see him, like she did basically every weekend. Since we shared a room and I always knew what she was doing, I covered for her. I would tell our parents that she was doing homework or that she didn't feel well or she was asleep and they would leave her alone."

I paused and willed myself not to start crying.

"She snuck out one night and when she snuck back in, it was a bit earlier than usual. Typically she wouldn't be back until three or four in the morning but this time it was only like one and I was still awake watching a movie. When she crawled in through the window, I could hear her crying. So I got out of bed to help her inside and when she got in through the window, I saw blood on her skirt. I thought she just got her period or something so I asked if that was it and I offered to go downstairs to get extra tampons from the main bathroom and run a bath for her. She said it wasn't her period and she went to go change into some other clothes."

I paused again.

"When she came out of our bathroom, she was still crying. She sat down on her bed and asked me to hold her. That kind of surprised me, because she was at the age where she never wanted to cuddle. But I sat down and I was leaned up against the headboard and she had her head on my shoulder and her arms were really tight around me, to the point where it almost hurt. But she was so upset and I wanted her to feel better so I didn't say anything. I just let her stay like that. I asked why she was so sad and what had happened. She started crying harder but she said she would tell me as long as I didn't tell mum or dad. And I promised I would never tell them because she was my sister and she could always trust me. She told me that he raped her."

I heard a sharp intake of breath from Connor and tears spilled down my cheeks before I could stop them.

"I was a very sheltered child, and I didn't know what that meant. So I asked. She told me that he forced her to have sex with him, that I understood. She told me she was a virgin, and he took that away from her. That's why she was bleeding and crying. Her thighs were starting to bruise and had finger marks on her arms and her neck a little bit. I asked her why she didn't want to tell our parents, because I thought that she could tell them and they could go to the police and send him to jail. Her exact words were 'He might hurt me. But even worse, I still love him. I don't want him to go to jail because I love him.' That really confused me. I asked why she loved someone who hurt her and she said because he was what she deserved."

I had to stop again, take a large drink, and let my breathing even out a little.

"Three months went by, it was two weeks after her 17th birthday. She'd faked being sick so she could stay home because she was sad. When school got out, I sprinted the whole way home. Before I went to school that day I said that when I got home we could watch a movie together and eat ice cream. I was so excited to hang out with her and I wanted to make her happier. When I got to our street, mum and dad were still at work. I went inside and it was really quiet which was weird, because when our parents were gone, she would blast her music really loud and dance around and cook and sing and she seemed like herself during that time. I thought she was asleep so I went upstairs and I opened our bedroom door, really slow and quiet so I wouldn't wake her up."

My hand was shaking in Connor's grip so he squeezed a little tighter.

"The lights were on in our room and our bathroom. So I went into the bathroom and she was on the floor, leaned up against the side of the tub. There was an empty bottle of vodka, an empty bottle of pain killers, and a razor blood on the floor next to her. And blood. There was so much blood, it looked like a horror movie. I felt like I walked into a scene of Friday The 13th, which was one of her favorite movies. I screamed. I fell down next to her and shook her and screamed and begged her to wake up but she was already cold. I walked back into our room and saw her cellphone on the desk. I grabbed it and I called mum at work.

"She answered after a couple of rings. She asked what was wrong, because she's not supposed to get personal calls at work. I told her Cassie was dead. She told me not to move. She told me to sit on my bed and not to anything. She called dad and the police. I sat down on my bed like she told me, and ruined my sheets because I had blood all over my legs and my hands from sitting on the floor next to her. Then I saw it. A piece of paper, folded up all neat, with a small pink ribbon tied around it. My name was written on the paper. So I picked it up and pulled the ribbon off. It was her suicide note. She said she was sorry and that no matter what she loved me. She said she couldn't put up with the pain anymore and she dind't know what to do other than give up. She kept apologizing over and over because she knew that I loved her more than anything in the world. That I loved her more than anyone loved her. But she couldn't do it anymore.

"I cried and cried and cried. I cried when the police asked me questions. I cried when mum and dad hugged me. I cried when they took her body away. I cried every night and every morning. Mum and dad kept me home from school because all I did was cry. I honestly didn't speak for two months. Not a single word. She was dead because she loved someone she should have. She loved him because she thought she didn't deserve any better. She died because she thought that's what she deserved. That's what I'm scared of. I'm scared of loving someone too much."

Connor reached over and wrapped his arms around my waist. He lifted me from my chair and placed me into his lap. I wrapped my arms around his shoulders tightly and cried into his neck.

His hands travelled up and down my back, trying to soothe me but I could not stop crying.

After my sobbing had subsided to silent tears, he whispered "Thank you."

"For what?" I muttered, barely trusting me own voice.

"For trusting me enough to tell me that. Thank you. I'm so sorry about your sister, I'm sorry you had to go through that. I'm happy you told me, okay? I'm proud of you for being strong enough to make it through that, and for being strong enough to tell me about it." He said and I felt tears of his own fall onto my shoulder.

I held onto him tightly. "I'm sorry for unloading all of that onto you."

He shook his head. "Don't be. You obviously needed to talk about it and I'm happy you talked to me about it."

We sat like that for at least twenty minutes before either of us spoke again.

"Sofia?" He said.

I looked up at him, tears still in both of our eyes. "Yeah?"

"You are not your sister."

~!Hey, guys. So, this chapter is really sad at the end. But I really hope you liked it because I felt like Sofia needed a little more extra background and that was just what happened when I started writing. Please tell me what you guys think. I love you so much. Thank you for reading. -Aly!~


	5. Drinking Games

"Yes!"

I cheered as the ping pong ball I'd thrown landed directly in the cup of beer.

"Fuck." Connor groaned.

I still had one shot left in my round and Connor only had four cups left. Three were all bunched together but the fourth was separate from the others.

"Island!" I called and Connor's eyes widened a fraction, in beer pong, if you call island and make it, it counts as two drinks.

I tossed the second ball and it landed in the separate cup.

"So, that's three drinks for you." I said.

He groaned and removed the balls from the cups before drinking those, and the third one I'd picked.

At my end of the table, I had five cups left, and now Connor had only one.

"We agreed trick shots are worth two right?" He asked.

I nodded.

He tossed the ping pong ball up, it bounced off the ceiling and into one of the cups.

"Fuck!"

He laughed. "I still have one more left."

He bounced the second ball off the table and it narrowly missed the cup he'd been aiming for and I cheered.

I drank two cups of beer before grabbing the balls and readying myself for the next shot.

It was Connor's last cup. If I made it, I would win.

I tossed the first ball and it bounced off the rim of the cup.

"Fuck." I whined.

I shot the second one and it happened again.

"Shit!" I shouted.

Connor laughed and shot his first ball, it landed directly in one of my cups and I sighed. Two left.

Connor shot the second ball, it bounced off the table and landed in another cup.

A trick shot, that meant two.

"I win!" Connor cheered.

I sighed and chugged the cups of beer.

Connor walked over to me and leaned against the table. "I told you I always win."

I flipped him off as I finished the last of the beer.

After the heart to heart we'd had by the pool, I'd cleaned up my make up and decided it was a great night to get completely hammered.

So Connor and I had played not one or two, but four games of beer pong. I won a single game.

"What's next?" He asked. "Quarters, maybe."

I shook my head. "Hell no. If you're this good at beer pong I can only imagine how good you are at quarters. If you want to play another drinking game we'll find a few people and play Circle of Death."

"I'll find JC and Kian, you find two girls." He said and went looking.

I saw Oria pouring herself another drink and walked over. "Hey."

"Hey." She smiled at me.

"Want to play Circle of Death?" I offered.

She grinned. "Hell yeah!"

"Okay. We need another girl to play." I said.

"What about Grace?" She asked.

"Is she here?" I asked. "I haven't seen her all night."

"She's over there, talking to Sawyer."

I looked in the direction she pointed and rushed over.

"Grace!" I said. "Come play Circle of Death with us!"

"I'm coming!" She said with no hesitation and followed me to the dining room.

Kian, JC, and Oria were already sitting at the table with drinks ready.

Grace sat in the open spot next to Oria and I sat beside her. "Where's Connor?"

"He went to find a deck of cards." Kian said.

He came in a second later and sat beside me.

"How are we going to play this?" JC asked.

There were loads of different rules for Circle of Death and people almost always played differently.

"Ace is waterfall." I said, which meant that if I drew an Ace, I would begin chugging, and the person to my left, in this case Connor, could not stop chugging until I did, and it continued like that around the circle. So Oria, who sat to my right, couldn't stop chugging until everyone else at the table did.

"Two for and three for me." Kian said. If a person drew a two, they would tell someone to take a drink, if they drew a three, they would take a drink for themselves.

"Four is for whores." Oria chirped. If someone drew a four, all the girls would take a drink.

"Five for guys?" Connor offered.

"What about we do five as Never Have I Ever? Everyone puts five fingers up and we go around and say something, whoever has all their fingers down first has to drink. Then six is for dicks, so the guys would drink." JC said.

"I like that." I said.

"Alright. Five is Never Have I Ever, six is for dicks. Seven is heaven." Connor stated.

Whenever someone drew seven, everyone has to put their hands in the air, the last person to do it, takes a drink.

"Eight could be pick a date." Kian offered. Everytime someone drew and eight, they would pick another person and they would both drink.

"Nine is rhyme." Oria said. The person who drew a nine would say a word, and you would go around the circle saying a word that rhymed until they couldn't anymore. The first person to fail would drink.

"Can we do moose for ten?" Connor asked.

"Yes!" Everyone responded. Moose meant that once the ten was drawn, everyone would have to put their open hands up to the sides of their heads, palms forward, kind of like antlers on a moose.

"Jack is a new rule. Queen is question master." I said, sipping my drink.

Whoever drew a joker could make up any rule for the game they wanted, if they wanted to say no one could cuss and if they did, they had to drink, then that would be the rule. Question master went to whoever drew the queen. If I was question master and I asked someone a question, they would have to respond with a question, if they didn't, they had to drink.

"Should king be King's Cup or categories?" Grace asked.

Everyone thought for a second.

"I say King's Cup. Categories takes forever." I said.

Everyone ended up agreeing with me.

A plastic cup was placed in the middle of the table, if someone drew a king, they had to pour a little of their drink into the cup, and so on each time a king was drawn. The unlucky person who drew the fourth king had to drink the mixture in the cup.

The cards were arranged face down in a circle around the cup. If you broke the circle while drawing a card, you had to drink, unless there weren't enough cards left to complete the circle.

"JC, you go first." Grace said.

JC pulled out a card and showed us with a smile. It was a five, Never Have I Ever.

Everyone held up five fingers and it began.

"Never Have I Ever kissed a boy." JC said.

Grace, Oria, and I all lowered one finger. Kian was next.

"Never Have I Ever thrown up while drunk." He said.

JC, Connor, Grace, Oria, and I lowered a finger.

"Never have I ever kissed a girl." She said.

Grace, Connor, JC, Kian, and I all lowered yet another finger.

"Never Have I Ever gone streaking." Grace said.

"God damn it, Grace!" I whined.

Connor, Kian, and I each lowered one finger. I had one left.

"Never Have I Ever attended St John's University." I stated, staring directly at Connor.

"I hate you." He said and lowered another finger. He had two fingers left.

JC, Kian and Oria had three, Grace had two.

"Never Have I Ever been to Australia." He said.

"You little shit." I nearly shouted, lowering my last finger and taking a large drink from my cup.

Kian drew the next card, it was an eight.

"Sofia, take a drink with me." He grinned.

I glared and we both took a drink.

Grace drew next. Ace.

Everyone groaned.

Grace began chugging, followed by Oria, myself, Connor, JC, then Kian.

I don't know how long she chugged for before finally giving up but I'd had to grab my second drink before she was done.

Oria stopped chugging right after Grace but I kept going.

Connor kept glancing at me out of the corner of his eye and I knew he wanted me to stop.

I kept chugging, switching drinks again.

Finally, I stopped chugging.

Connor lowered his cup right after mine, followed by JC and Kian.

"I think I almost drowned." Connor said, followed by a loud burp.

I laughed. "I can chug so it's best not to fuck with me during this game."

Oria drew her card next. "Question master."

"Fuck." I always messed up with question master. I completely forgot who it was all the time.

I drew my card next. A Jack, I got to make a rule. "Alright, my rule is..."

I paused and tapped my chin. "Connor, everytime you have to drink, take two drinks."

"Oooohhhhhhh!" Kian shouted.

"That's just cold." JC said with a laugh.

Connor glared at me. "It's fucking on now."

He drew his own card and threw his hands in the air. "Heaven!"

I threw my arms up right away. Kian was last so he took a drink.

Now it was back to JC. The game kept going and going.

Oria held question master for the entire game. JC made the rule that everytime someone had to drink, they had to tap a beat on the table after the drink, if they failed to do so, they took another drink. Kian made the rule that everytime someone drew a king, they had to put part of their drink into the middle cup as usual, and do five jumping jacks. Connor's rule, which was by far the worst (in my opinion), was that everytime he drank, I had to take the same number of drinks. Grace was the person who ended up drawing the fourth king, ending the game, and having to drink the disgusting mixture in the middle of the table.

It contained some of my tequila, some of JC's beer, and Oria's vodka.

After the game ended, I went to stand up and stumbled into the wall.

Connor was a bit unsteady but I couldn't stand without the held of a person or steady object, such as a lovely wall.

"I gotta pee." I whined. "Go get Tyler."

"I can take you to the bathroom." Connor said.

"No. I need someone to go into the bathroom with me. And Tyler can do that because he is not attracted to people with lady parts." I slurred.

Connor went to to retrieve Tyler who was fairly drunk, but not nearly as bad as myself.

He guided me to the bathroom and shut the door. I dropped my pants and sat down.

Once I peed and wiped myself, Tyler held me up while I pulled my pants up and washed my hands. He then guided me back to the kitchen where Connor was sitting on the counter.

I stumbled over to Connor, one hand on the countertop to keep myself upright, and poked his chest. "You... Are one of the best friends I've ever had, do you know that?"

He smiled. "You're drunk."

"No. Shh. You're one of my best friends, and I love you a lot. But sometimes I think you're a little shit." I continued.

"This is because I made you drink a lot." He said, still smiling.

I shook my head. "It's because you are a little shit."

He laughed. "So are you."

I nodded. "Yeah. That's true."

I leaned against the counter beside him, leaning into his side and shutting my eyes.

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"Going to sleep." I muttered.

"Do you need me to call a cab for you?" He asked.

"I just wanna take a nap."

He slid off the counter and lifted me easily, draping me across his shoulder, and headed towards the stairs.

I laughed as I swayed with his steps. "This is fun."

Connor opened the door to his bedroom and carried me over to his bed, lowering me gently onto the sheets.

I kicked my heels to the floor and curled up in a ball.

"Go to sleep." Connor said, kissing my forehead and shutting the light off.

"Aren't you gonna come cuddle?" I whined as he went to leave the room.

"Did you want me to?" He asked.

"Duh." I muttered and he laughed before stepping back into the room and shutting the door.

He kicked off his shoes and jeans before laying beside me.

I curled up against his side. "You're warm."

"Thanks." He said and I giggled.

"Hey, Connor?" I muttered.

"Yeah, Sof?"

"Next time we drink together remind me not to play beer pong against you."

He chuckled. "I will."

"Promise?" I asked.

"Promise." He whispered.

"Goodnight." I said.

"Goodnight, sweetheart."

~!Tbh, I really don't know what I wanted to say about this one. I liked it, I hope you guys do too! Please review and tell me what you think. Love you! -Aly!~


	6. Stay

**Quick note: **This skips ahead about a month. I know I've jumped around a bit and it's probably a little frustrating but believe me, it will make sense soon.

"Who are we even picking up?" I whined as Tyler pulled me through the airport.

"Troye and his friend." Tyler said.

"Who is Troye's friend?" I asked.

"You'll see. She's really cool. I know for a fact that she loves your videos."

I smiled. "Well, she sounds lovely.

Tyler laughed and stretched onto his toes to look around.

I absently rubbed my bare arms, it was rather cold inside the airport.

"I see Troye!" Tyler cheered and grabbed my arm, dragging me though the crowd of people.

I followed him and within a few seconds I could see Troye standing a few meters away, there was a girl who wasn't much taller than myself standing beside him. She had long hair that was purple at the top and faded into a blue ombre at the bottom. It was wicked cute.

She was facing away from my so I couldn't see if it was another youtuber.

"Troye!" Tyler called.

Troye's head snapped in our direction and he grinning, waving widely.

He grabbed the girl beside him and they made their way through the crowd. I still couldn't see the girl's face.

Once they made it through the biggest part of the crowd, I could see both of them clearly.

The girl had on black skinny jeans, a black tshirt with a white rose design, cute black leather boots, and a black leather jacket to kill for. Her eye make up was dark, making her bright blue eyes stand out, soft pink lips, a killer smile, and freckles she'd tried to cover with concealer.

She almost looked like Olivia, except for the hair.

"How long are you going to stare before you say hello, you wanker?" She said to me.

"Oh my god. Olivia. It is you. Holy fucking shit." I gasped.

She grinned. "Get over here."

I ran the few steps over to her and we hugged tightly.

"I missed you heaps." She said.

"I missed you heaps too, you tosser." I said back.

She laughed and we hugged for another minute before finally separating.

"You look amazing." I said. "Your hair looks fantastic."

"Thanks. Did you go all SoCal on me and get a boob job or is this natural?" She teased, pointing to my chest.

Ever since moving to the US, I'd gone from a B cup to a D. It was actually vaguely stressful and painful. I could hardly run or workout without my back starting to hurt within twenty minutes or so.

"Shut up. I'll give you some of mine, if that what's you want." I said.

Olivia grinned. "Sweetie, I've got plenty of my own."

It was true. Olivia was a D by the time we were fifteen but hadn't grown much since then.

"Olivia." Tyler said a moment later.

She smiled widely at him. "Hi!"

They hugged tightly but briefly.

"Wait, Tyler, how long have you known she was coming?" I asked.

"About two weeks." He shrugged.

My jaw dropped. "You guys never told me."

Tyler and Olivia laughed. "I'm so offended."

Troye stepped closer to me. "I told them they should've told you. I knew you would freak."

I laughed and stepped up to him. "I think now's a good time for a hug."

He held his arms out and squeezed me tightly.

Troye and I had known each other for years. His father was close friends with my mother and they'd come to Bowen when I was about six. Troye's family stayed for about a week and in that time, Troye and I became very close.

We still texted nearly everyday but it had been years. We hadn't seen each other since I was ten.

"I missed you." I muttered.

"Missed you too." He whispered.

We'd been hugging for roughly two minutes so we figured it was probably time to step away from each other, which we did, reluctantly.

"Is everyone ready?" Tyler asked.

Troye and Olivia nodded.

Olivia and I hooked arms and I held Troye's hand tightly as we walked out of the airport.

When we got back to Tyler's car, we loaded Troye and Olivia's bags into the trunk before slamming it shut and getting in the car.

Tyler drove, Troye sat shotgun, Olivia and myself sat in the backseat.

"I can't wait a minute longer. I have to ask." Olivia said suddenly as we pulled out of the parking lot. "What's up with you and Connor now?"

Troye turned in his seat to look at me. "Honestly though. We need to know."

I sighed. "I don't know. I mean, I'm still not 18 yet so there's nothing we can do. I mean, we talk all the time and facetime and stuff. We've got a lot in common. I do really like him. I'm not entirely sure about his feelings towards me though."

"He is in love with you." Troye said.

I rolled my eyes. "That's hardly the case."

"No, he's in love with you." He repeated.

"Troye, Connor is a 21 year old man and I'm not yet 18 years old. We are barely in love." I groaned.

"Need I remind you that you will be 18 in exactly 14 days. It is currently the fifth of December and you will be of age on the nineteen of December. This is a mere two weeks." Troye pointed out.

"Troye's right." Olivia stated.

I frowned at her. "Guys, it's just... I'm not sure that I'm his type."

"Because you know his type exactly?" Olivia challenged.

"One word. Zoella." I said.

Tyler finally jumped in. "Listen, Sofia, they didn't even date for that long, first of all. Second, Connor's 'type' is basically you to a T."

"I have to agree with that." Troye said. "He likes girls that are fit, much like yourself. You're very pretty which I'm sure he loves. He's not very picky about hair color but you've been blessed with the golden blonde mane that I'm sure girls strive to find in hair dye bottles but fail miserably. Also, he is a straight boy and you have boobs and he's got to love that."

I couldn't help but laugh just a little.

"Not to mention that you're super sweet and you're always, like, there for people. And you're genuinely funny and I remember him saying in a video that he loves girls that are truly funny but that they're hard to find. And you've got that." Olivia added.

"And just like a week ago I was texting Connor and we were talking about you and one of the things he said was, and I quote 'She's absolutely fucking stunning.' So there's that." Tyler said.

"It doesn't matter though because I am not 18 years old so we're fucked. Actually, we're not getting fucked and therein lies the problem." I growled, my voice rising just a bit.

"I'll bet you $20 he asks you out either on your birthday or within a week after." Tyler challenged me.

My eyebrows went up a fraction. "Deal."

I reached forward and he held his right hand out. We shook.

"By the way, he's coming over tonight." Tyler said.

"Connor is?" I asked.

He nodded. "He hasn't seen Troye in like a year. He needs to meet Olivia. And you guys haven't hung out in like three days."

"We don't hang out all the time, Tilly. We aren't dating, remember."

Tyler just sighed.

A few minutes later we finally pulled up to me and Tyler's place. Tyler and I helped Troye and Olivia grab their bags and take them inside.

We took their bags into the guest rooms before everyone went into the living room and took a seat on the sofa.

Tyler opened his mouth to say something and at the same moment, there was a knock on the door. "That's probably Connor."

Tyler jumped up and ran towards the door.

For whatever reason, I felt my heart quicken when I heard Connor's voice.

Olivia obviously noticed me tense up because she gave my hand a quick squeeze.

When Connor came into the room, Troye jumped up immediately.

The boys greeted each other and shared a tight hug.

Olivia and I both stood up a second later.

Tyler introduced Connor and Olivia. They said hello and hugged briefly before Connor stepped over to me.

"Hey." He grinned and his arms wrapped around my waist.

My arms immediately went up his shoulders.

He squeezed my so tight that I felt my feet leave the ground for just a second.

"Hi." I whispered.

He let go of my waist only to grab tightly onto one of my hands.

"We should all go grab dinner." Tyler suggested.

"I'm down. I'm starving." Olivia said.

"Yeah, same. I would've gotten something on the plane but a bag of pretzels isn't worth $6." Troye agreed.

"Are you two down?" Olivia asked, looking at Connor and I.

We both nodded.

"I need to change super quick though. Someone didn't give me a chance to put real pants on before dragging me to the airport." I said, looking pointedly at Tyler and then down to the tiny pajama shorts hanging from my hips.

"Go change then." Tyler said.

"I'll help you." Olivia offered and followed me to my room.

As soon as the door was shut behind us, she let out a squeal.

I jumped at the noise. "What?"

"I know you said he's cuter in person, but ohmygod. You under sold it, I swear. He's hot as fuck."

I laughed. "Believe me, I know."

She grinned. "And I don't know if you realize this or not, but you are so fucking cute together. I ship it. Confia is my new OTP."

I rolled my eyes playfully and opened my closet. "You said you were going to help me."

She stood beside me and we stared into the closet blankly for a moment.

"You have two shirts hanging up." She stated.

I nodded. "I forgot to do washing."

"I'll help you with it tomorrow. Find a pair of jeans and I'll go find a couple of my shirts and you can wear one of them." She said before leaving the room.

I dug through my dresser and found a pair of black skinny jeans that weren't too ripped up and pulled them onto my legs.

Olivia came back in a minute later and all but threw a tank top at me.

I caught it and looked at the front. It was a vintage Nirvana tank top.

I slipped it on and walked over to my dresser. I took out my contacts, put on a quick coat of mascara, and put on my polka dot framed glasses.

"Why'd you put your glasses on?" Olivia asked.

"My contacts were kind of bothering my eyes." I said with a shrug.

"I like the braid." She said when I went to take the hairtie out of my fishtail braid I'd done that morning.

My arm dropped to my side. "Then I will keep it."

I sat down and quickly pulled on my all black vans which had obviously seen better days and slung my white purse over my shoulder.

"Okay, let's go." I said and grabbed my phone from the dresser.

We walked back into the living room and the boys immediately jumped up from the lounge.

Everyone went outside and loaded into Tyler's car.

Tyler obviously drove, Troye sat shotgun, and I was in the middle of the backseat with Connor to my right and Olivia to my left.

"Is Taco Bell an appropriate Welcome To America dinner?" I asked.

"Yes." Everyone replied in unison.

I giggled. "Tyler, we just had Taco Bell for breakfast. Why do I feel like we haven't had it since like 1985?"

"You weren't even alive in 1985." He reminded me.

"Exactly my point." I said.

It was quiet for a minute and Connor grabbed my hand again.

I glanced at him and smiled. I could see him smile back from the corner of my eye.

When Tyler pulled into a parking space, we all loaded out of the car.

As we walked across the parking lot, Connor slung his arm around my shoulders and pulled me to his side. He leaned down, his lips right at my ear, and whispered "You look really cute with glasses."

I blushed. "Thanks."

He pressed a quick kiss to my red cheek before we followed our friends inside.

After we all got our food, we sat down at table.

Olivia was to my left, Troye sat at the end of the table, Tyler was across from Olivia, and Connor was across from me.

We talked and ate for almost an hour before finally deciding to leave.

We loaded back into the car and headed home.

When we walked through the door, Tyler headed straight for the kitchen and pulled out a bottle of Fireball whiskey.

I sat down at the breakfast bar. "Tyler, we just ate Taco Bell. If we drink cinnamon whiskey too everyone's going to be shitting actual fire for the next three days."

"Good." He said and twisted the cap off.

He poured five shots and distributed them to everyone.

He held his shot in the air and everyone followed suit.

"To Troye and Olivia." Tyler toasted.

Everyone clinked glasses before tipping them back and swallowing the liquor.

I shuddered and sat my glass back down on the counter.

Olivia let out a small cough. "It's spicy."

"Do you need a chaser?" I teased.

"Fuck that." She said and I laughed.

We did shot after shot until we'd finished the entire bottle of Fireball as well as half a bottle of Jager.

Troye had passed out on the end of the lounge at one point, Tyler fell asleep at the other end, and Olivia had stumbled to her bed at some point.

Connor and I were still sitting at the breakfast bar, giggling about something that had been said roughly twenty minutes before.

"I think I'm going to head to bed." I said after a minute.

"I should probably call a cab." Connor said.

I looked down at our hands, still intertwined. "Stay?"

"What?" He asked.

My voice had been so quiet I barely even heard myself. I spoke up a bit more. "Won't you stay?"

"Only if you want me to." He said.

I smiled. "Of course I want you to."

He grinned and I slid off the stool, tugging his hand lightly.

He followed me to my bedroom and I kicked off my shoes and jeans as Connor did the same.

We climbed into bed, neither of us caring about the fact that we were in our underwear and tshirts.

"Thank you." I whispered as Connor pulled me to his chest.

"For what?" He asked.

"For staying."

He kissed the top of my head.

My hand laid on his chest.

"Hey, Sof." He said.

I raised my head and looked up at him. "Yeah?"

"Thank you."

I giggled. "For what?"

"For asking me to stay." He said and leaned forward, kissing me softly.

~!Sorry I took so long to update. I just started some of my college classes and I'm swamped already but I'm going to update whenever I can. I hope you guys liked this chapter. Review and let me know what you think. Love you, guys! -Aly!~


	7. Question and Answer

"Hey, guys! Sofia here!" I waved to my camera with a big smile on my face. "So, if you're wondering what's with the change in scenery, I am currently in the O2L house spending some time with my best friends in the whole world. It is also currently eleven pm which means exactly one hour from now, I will officially be eighteen years old. To celebrate I decided to do the q&a you guys have been asking for. But this time, there are a couple twists."

I paused dramatically. "The first one is a very special guest. The one and only..."

I held my arm out and he ran into frame and sat down beside me. "It's me! Connor!"

I laughed. "Yes, it's finally happening. Connor and I are finally doing a collab."

"My dreams are coming true." He sighed dramatically.

I giggled. "Same. Connor, tell the people what the other twist for our video is."

"It's going to be very sexy." He said with a wink.

"That's right! I went to twitter and had you guys submit questions under the hashtag SexualSofia. And Connor is going to help me answer them." I explained.

"We've both pulled up the tag on our phones and we're going to go through and take turns asking questions." Connor said.

"Would you like to start?" I offered.

"I would love to." He said, looking down at his phone. "First question, what is sex?"

I chuckled. "Ask your mom."

"Or your dad." Connor said.

"Or your priest." I shrugged.

"Probably not your priest." He grinned.

I laughed. "Question two. Did you touch the butt?"

"Yes." We answered in unison.

"Do you ever get hit on by older people?" He asked. "I get hit on by moms all the time."

"The other day a girl came up to me in Taco Bell and her dad kept making these 'fuck me' eyes and I was so scared." I said.

Connor laughed as I looked for a new question.

"Are you romantic?"

Connor nodded with a small smile. "I am a hopeless romantic."

I shook my head. "No. I hated The Notebook."

"Seriously?" He asked.

I shook my head again. "I'm lying completely. I love The Notebook. I own the dvd. I cry everytime. And I am also a hopeless romantic. And I hate it about myself. What's the next question?"

"This is a good one. How do you get over a crush?" He asked.

"Get under him instead." I said immediately.

Connor's eyes widened a fraction. "Wow. I don't even need to answer because nothing I could say could ever beat that."

I laughed. "Thanks."

I looked for a new question. "What do you do when you're home alone? Winky face."

"Sleep." Connor said.

"Eat." I answered. "Bet you thought you would get something better with the winky face..."

"You thought wrong!" Connor finished.

After a dramatic pause, he read a new question. "Have you ever kissed a stranger?"

"Yes." We answered in unison again.

"Have you ever sent nudes or had them sent to you?" I asked.

"Both." He answered with a hint of a blush.

"Ooh, scandalous." I teased. "I've had them sent to me but I haven't sent them. This guy sent me a dick pic and I did not want it and I was vaguely offended."

Connor laughed. "One time I got a dick pic because this guy sent it to a wrong number and I was in shock for the rest of the week. I was disturbed."

I patted his arm. "We've all seen dicks we didn't want to see."

He chuckled. "Going with the theme of nudes, what would you do if your nudes were leaked?"

"Well, if you're Acacia Brinley you get internet famous." I said.

"Oh my god, the shade!" Connor said after a burst of laughter.

After he stopped laughing, I spoke. "How many relationships have you been in? I have been in two serious relationships."

"I have been in three." Connor said. "Turn offs? Turn ons?"

"I can't think of any immediate turn offs other than smoking, honestly." I said.

"I agree with that." He nodded.

I thought for a moment. "Neck biting and hair pulling is a major turn on."

"This is kind of hard to explain... I like when girls dress differently. Like, if you see a girl who usually wears skirts or dresses and she's dressed down in like sweats. Or a girl who dresses casually in jeans or whatever, and you see her in a dress. I love that." Connor explained.

"How many people have you kissed?" I asked.

"Too many to count." He said.

I nodded. "I could try to count but I would fail."

He looked at his phone screen. "What kind of underwear do you have on?"

We both pulled the waistband of our pants away from our bodies to look.

"I am wearing blue American Eagle boxers." He said.

"I am wearing a thong. It is pink with white dots." I said.

"Cute." Connor teased.

I laughed. "Shut the fuck up."

"Ever skinny dipped?" I asked a second later.

Connor nodded. "Yep."

"I have not. But I want to." I admitted.

"Are you a good kisser?" He asked.

I paused. "Well, I mean, I'd like to think I am."

"Same." He nodded.

"What do you usually wear to bed?" I read.

"Boxers. Or I sleep naked." He said.

I nodded. "I either sleep naked or in a tank top and spanks."

"Here's a good question for you. Does size matter?" He asked.

I paused. "Kind of... But it's more important that you know how to use it."

"Honestly, all I'm thinking about right now is boobs." He admitted and I cackled.

I looked at a new question. "Okay, here's one for you. What's the best color of lingerie?"

"Pink. Pink is really cute. Or white." He said.

"Pink is my personal favorite. I think white is cute because it's sort of... innocent? Lingerie is cool in general. I am a fan of wearing it." I admitted.

"Phone sex or sexting?" He asked.

"Sexting." I said without hesitation.

He nodded. "I think sexting is less awkard."

"Definitely." I said. "Would you ever have shower sex?"

"I already have." He said.

"I have not but I definitely think I would."

"Would you ever have a threesome?" He read.

I thought about it. "I think it depends who it would be with... But honestly I can't see myself doing that."

He nodded. "Yeah, I doubt it. I just... I don't know. I feel like I wouldn't know what to do."

I laughed. "Exactly. Where do I put my mouth? Which one of you is touching my vagina? What's happening?"

Connor burst out laughing and fell over on the lounge. "Oh my god!"

"I think I may need to cut that part out." I said.

"You think?!" He almost shouted.

I laughed. "I didn't intend on being that dirty."

"Well, you did it." He said, sitting back up.

"These are progressively getting more and more dirty." He said as we scrolled through the tag in search of more good questions.

"I know. It's glorious. Oh, here's a good one. Dom or sub?" I asked.

"I don't know..." He trailed off.

"Both, I think. Sometimes you want to be in control and other times you want someone to control you." I said, my cheeks growing red.

"Again, I'm going to have to agree with you." He said. "Favorite position?"

I cocked my head to the side while I thought about it.

"When the girl is on her back with her legs on my shoulders." He finally said.

I nodded. "That's a good one. People are going to think it's weird that I say this, but reverse cowgirl..."

"Really?" Connor asked, a bit shocked.

My cheeks grew more red as I met his green eyes. "Yes. Is that weird?"

"I don't think it's weird. I just think a lot of girls don't like it because girls usually want to see the other person's face." He said.

"But sex doesn't always have to be romantic and cute and shit. I think that we can all agree that sometimes, not all the time, it needs to get a little dirty."

Connor was so surprised. "I have honestly never heard a girl say that."

I shrugged. "It's true. All girls either want someone to be rough with them or to be rough with someone else every now and then, if not always. Most just don't admit it."

He laughed. "This has been such an educational experience."

"And this has been Sex Ed with Connor Franta and Sofia Forwood. Tune in next Monday for more!" I said with my best tv announcer voice.

"Actually, if you want more you can just go watch my videos." Connor said.

"Or do that. Connor and I made a video for his channvel where we played a very offensive game called Cards Against Humanity. You can click anywhere on his person right now to go watch it. It will also be the first link in the downbar for those of you on mobile."

"Thumbs up this video if you liked our very sexy answers to your very sexy questions." Connor said, both of us doing a thumbs up.

"And make sure you're subscribed to both of our channels because we're kind of cool." I said. "I'll see you next week. Stay chill. Bye!"

We waved to the camera before I shut it off.

"Well that was exciting." Connor said as I packed my camera in the bag.

"I agree." I smiled.

"I feel vaguely dirty." He said.

I laughed. "I can understand that."

He glanced at the clock on the wall and grinned. He jumped up and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist, lifting me off the ground. "It's midnight. Happy birthday!"

I giggled and held onto him. "Thanks, Connor."

He released me a headed towards the stairs.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I have to go get your present!" He said.

"Present?"

He nodded excitedly and sprinted up the stairs.

I sat down on the lounge and Connor came running back into the room a moment later, holding a box wrapped with purple wrapping paper and topped with a silver bow.

There was a card stuck to the top so I pulled it off and removed the envelope.

The card was for a child. It had three little girls on the front, standing beside each other, holding pink baloons, and it said "Birthday Princess." When I opened the card it said "Happy birthday to Her Royal Cuteness."

I laid the card in my lap and turned to Connor. He was smirking slightly.

"What the actual fuck is wrong with you?" I asked, trying not to laugh.

"It's cute, right?" He grinned.

I shook my head. "You're ridiculous."

I placed the card on the coffee table and tore the purple paper off the box. I paused before opening the box. "This is heavy. I'm scared."

"Just open it. It's nothing bad." Connor encouraged.

I lifted the lid off the box and sat it down. The first gift was laying on top. It was a $15 Starbucks gift card. "Yaaaaaaas!"

Connor laughed. "Look at the rest of it, dork."

I stuck my tongue out at him and lifted the next gift. There were two books. A copy of Looking For Alaska and Paper Towns, my two favorite John Green books that I'd lost my copies of while moving.

I grinned. "Thank you."

"Look at the title pages of them." He whispered.

Upon opening each book, I found that they were both signed by John Green. "Ohmygod!"

I turned to Connor, my jaw and eyes wide. "Connor, thank you so much."

I threw my arms around his shoulders, holding him tightly.

"You're welcome, Sof." He said, squeezing my hips. "There's one more present left."

I released him and looked back into the box. At the very bottom I saw a blue jewel case, the disc inside was labeled "For Sofia" in Connor's slightly messy handwriting.

"What is it?" I asked.

He grabbed the case and walked across the room, removing the disc and placing it into the dvd player.

The disc loaded and he pressed play.

The opening screen showed a picture of our group of friends. I was in the middle, Connor directly to my left, Olivia directly to my right. The rest of O2L, Tyler, Troye, Sawyer, Joey, and Grace were standing in various positions around us.

Along the top of the screen, in purple, swirling text, it said "Happy 18th Birthday, Sofia!"

The image faded into a picture of Connor and I, a selfie we'd taken on a trip to Starbucks. That picture then faded into one of me, Tyler, and Troye. The pictures continued faded into new ones, into small video clips of me with all of my best friends. There were countless pictures and videos and the transitions were perfect. It must've taken Connor forever to finish. It was beautiful and easily the best gift I'd ever recieved.

When it ended, I turned to face Connor, tears streaming down my cheeks. "Thank you. I really can't say anything else. This is the best present anyone has ever given me. I love it. God, thank you so much."

He held me tightly, one of his hands gently running through my hair.

I pulled back slightly to look at him, he smiled widely. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, Sofia." He whispered, kissing my forehead.

There was a pause, it was silent for a moment.

"Sofia, can I ask you something?" He asked, wiping stray tears from my cheeks.

I nodded.

"I have to preface this first... I've been watching your videos ever since you uploaded the very first one with Olivia, every video, every week, even your vlogs. They always made me laugh, a few videos you did even gave me inspiration for videos of my own. You were wicked smart too. You weren't just funny by making dirty jokes. You were witty and clever. There was this sort of dry humor that I feel like I only ever saw on The Office. I sort of fell in love with your personality. And you're gorgeous, so god damn beautiful. Then I found out you were moving to San Diego, I thought maybe I should get up the courage to actually talk to you and then maybe we could meet. But I was nervous, really nervous, and I never said anything. Then I saw your video with Tyler where you said I was your Youtube crush, and I was really happy about that. And then I ran into you at Vidcon. You were even more beautiful in person. We spent that night together and it was one of my favorite nights ever, Sof. You are so much fun to be around, you're one of my best friends, and I care about you so much." He paused, his eyes gauging my reaction.

I know I was blushing like crazy, and I felt tears prickling my eyes.

"Be my girlfriend?" He asked.

I smiled widely and nodded vigorously. "Yes, of course."

~!Okay, so that was kinda cute. To be completely honest, I feel like this chapter wasn't that great, but maybe that's just me. Please let me know what you guys think. Do you like it? Do you ship Confia? I know I do. Anyways, thank you so much for reading. I love you guys heaps. -Aly!~


	8. No Hate

The dress I'd opted to wear was one of my favorites that I owned. It was lace in a deep red color that really complimented my skintone. The flowy fabric ended just before reaching my knees.

I twirled around the room a few times, just getting comfortable with the feel of the dress that I hadn't had the chance to wear in so long.

I stopped twirling in front of the closet which was still open and I stared at the collection of shoes laying on the floor.

A pair of black, wedged ankle boots caught my eye. I picked them up and carried them over to the bed where I sat down to put them on.

I grabbed my make up bag and got to work. I applied a little bit of soft red eye shadow, black eyeliner, a few coats of mascara, shimmery blush, and red tinted lipgloss.

Standing in front of the mirror, I admired my finished look. I was actually really happy with how I looked.

I fluffed my freshly straightened blond hair before grabbing my phone from the dresser and opening the camera. I took a picture of my reflection because I am a typical teenage girl who takes far too many pictures of myself and some of them just so happened to be mirror selfies.

The picture was too cute not to post everywhere so I uploaded it to instagram and twitter with the caption "Night out."

I didn't spend any time waiting for likes or comments. I just locked my phone and walked out of my room.

Tyler, Troye, and Olivia were sitting on the lounge watching Friends but all turned to look at me when I walked into the room.

"You look hot!" Olivia said immediately and I laughed.

"Is that lace?" Troye asked and I nodded. "What a classy bitch."

Tyler just stared for a minute, his head cocked to the side. "You're going to dinner?"

I nodded once.

"I approve." He said finally.

"Thanks!" I giggled and sat down on the edge of the lounge.

There was no point in getting comfortable, I would be leaving in a matter of minutes.

There was a knock on the door less than three minutes later and I ran to open it.

When I opened the door Connor smiled widely. "You look beautiful."

I blushed. "Thanks. You look amazing, too."

Connor wearing all black was my favorite Connor. He wore black jeans, a black tshirt, a plain black flannel, a black watch, and black vans.

He grabbed my hand. "You ready?"

I nodded and followed him out the door.

He opened my car door and I thanked him before getting in, making sure to keep my legs shut considering I'm not typically very ladylike.

Connor got in a minute later and started up the car.

"So, I made a reservation for us at Franco, the Italian place just off Melrose. Everyone said it's really good and I know you have a passion for Italian food." He said.

I smiled. "That sounds great."

"They don't sell alcohol but they do the corkage fee thing so I brought a bottle of wine for us. I figured since we're going to an Italian restaurant I should get some nice Italian wine, I don't really know what it is though. A woman at the liquor store helped me pick it out." He explained. "The bottle's lying in the backseat if you want to look at it."

I turned in my seat and reached for the bottle.

When I examined the bottle, I recognized the name right away. Olivia's parents bought it all the time and whenever we had dinner at their house, they would let us each have a glass. It was quite sweet, fruity, and basically amazing. I also knew that it usually ran about $50 per bottle.

"Connor, next time you go to the liquor store, thank that woman for me." I said.

"Is it good wine?" He asked, looking away from the road for a second.

"Good wine? This is amazing wine. I mean, most wine is good but this is like, wow. Do you like sweet red wines?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Then you're going to love this. It's sweet but also super fruity and the finish is a little dry and it all balances out to make basically the best wine I've ever tasted in my entire life." I explained.

He chuckled. "I will definitely thank the liquor store woman next time."

I grinned. "Good."

We pulled onto Melrose just a few minutes later and Connor looked along the sides of the street for a good place to park.

I pointed to a SUV that was pulling out of a spot in front of the place next to Franco and Connor pulled in as soon as the SUV was out of the way.

He got out and hurried to open my door.

He carried the wine in one hand and held my hand with the other.

We walked inside and someone immediately greeted us at the door. Connor told them the reservation but I was too busy looking around to really notice.

The place was beautiful.

Connor tugged my hand to get my attention and we follow the waiter into the open air dining room and to a small table near the back of the room. It was a little dark, but not too much. There were fairy lights hanging from the ceiling, small groups and couples talking quietly at their tables. The tables were covered with bright white table clothes.

I couldn't have pictured a better date night restaurant.

Connor pulled my chair out for me and I thanked him as I sat down.

He sat down across from me at the small table and placed the bottle of wine on the table.

The waiter introduced himself as Jaime and gave us a bright smile.

"I see you've brought your own wine." He smiled and pulled out a cork screw.

He lifted the bottle and read the label. "This is a lovely choice. I'm sure you'll both love it."

He removed the cork easily and poured two glasses.

Jaime stepped away to grab a bread basket for us and when he returned he placed it in the middle of the table and said he would be back in a few minutes to see what we wanted to start off with.

He walked away and Connor and I both looked through the appetizer menu.

He looked vaguely confused.

"You okay?" I giggled.

"I really should've thought this through. I don't speak Italian so I have essentially no idea what any of this means." He said.

"You could get the polpettine di carne." I suggested.

"What's that?" He asked.

I smiled. "It's just tiny meatballs with tomato sauce."

He nodded. "Okay, yeah."

I smiled again and decided to start off with a simple Caesar salad.

"Um, thanks, by the way." Connor said.

I giggled. "Don't worry about it. Thanks for asking me out tonight."

He smiled and lifted his glass of wine, taking a small sip. "Holy crap."

"Delicious, right?" I asked as I lifted my own glass.

He nodded. "I'm going to start buying this all the time."

Jaime appeared a second later. "Are you enjoying your wine?"

We both nodded.

"Great. What can I get for your appetizer?" He asked.

I ordered my salad and Connor ordered what I told him to and Jaime hurried off.

"I like him." I said. "He's nice."

Connor nodded. "Yeah, he'll be getting a nice tip."

I looked around the room again and spotted an elderly couple together. They had to be about 75 but they were smiling like children and holding hands tightly. I couldn't help but smile.

Connor followed my line of sight and saw the couple, he cracked a smile of his own. "They're cute."

I nodded. "I don't understand people who say they never want to grow old. Because that's what I want, a relationship like that. Where you're old and wrinkly but you still love each other as much as you did however many years ago."

He smiled at me. "For being 18 you're incredibly intellectual."

"What do you mean?" I asked, taking another drink.

He leaned forward just a little. "I mean you know exactly what you think and how you feel and you can talk about so well, so easily. I could ask you about your opinion on basically anything and it would be so easy for you to tell me about it."

I blushed lightly. "I am quite opinionated."

He shook his head. "Not quite what I meant. A lot times, opinionated people tend to be very harsh and outspoken about what they think all the time. You're kind of a quiet thinker. You sort through all of it in your head and you don't really say anything unless you feel that you understand the situation at hand and what you think to the best of your abilities. Then when someone asks you, it rolls off your tongue. You're smart in that way."

"I just try not to offend people usually." I admitted.

He smiled. "So, what are you thoughts on the conflict in Syria and the Middle East?"

"Oh. You mean, ISIS and the recently ordered airstrikes on Syria and Iraq? I think it's..." I trailed off when I noticed the slight smirk on Connor's face. "You wanted it to test it, didn't you? To see if you were exactly right? That was smooth, I'll give you that."

He laughed. "It's kind of impressive how you just started talking about it. It's like that's exactly what you were thinking about."

"It was. Connor, I am deep in thought about Middle Eastern conflict. I can't even focus on our date because I am so concerned with the current state of the world." I paused. "The sad thing is that conflict in the world is one of those things that is constantly on my mind. Maybe not always prominently but it's there. If I'm not doing anything that I need to focus on, I start thinking about different political stuff. The other day I was in the shower and I was just washing my hair and I suddenly thought 'What if something like the Syrian conflict happened in the US? How would I react? What would my first plan of action be?' So I was thinking about that and as I rinsed my hair, I began to feel really stressed out and panicked a little. Then I realized the chances of that happening are very low and I would not need a plan of action because I am not the president."

Connor held back a laugh because he noticed Jaime approaching our tables with the appetizers.

He sat our food down and told us to enjoy, and that he would be back when we were finished to get our entree orders.

We thanked him again before he walked away and we picked up our forks.

"I was holding back a laugh the whole time he was here and I needed to laugh so much that I thought I was going to pass out." Connor muttered.

I giggled and took a bite of my salad, which was perfect.

Connor seemed to enjoy what he ordered as well.

The conversation between us flowed easily as we ate and drank. Politics turned into news which turned into books then to movies then to music and so on.

The only break in conversation happened when we were chewing or laughing to hard to speak.

After we'd finished an entire three course meal and our bottle of wine, Connor paid the bill and we got up to leave.

We both stumbled slightly as we left the restaurant, the result of just a bit too much wine.

"I think I should call a cab..." Connor said.

"I don't want to go home yet." I pouted.

"Well what do you want to do?" He asked, his arm easily finding its way around my waist.

I shrugged. "It's LA. I'm sure we can find something."

"Do you want to go to the beach or the pier in Santa Monica?" He asked.

I nodded. "Sure."

Connor flagged down a cab and we got in.

We talked in the backseat of the cab on the thirty minute ride to the pier.

The cabbie dropped us off not far from the pier and we got out.

"Do you want to walk down the pier or just go sit on the beach?" Connor asked, taking my hand.

"Let's walk down the pier then go sit on the beach." I said.

He smiled. "Perfect."

I was surprised at how few people were around until I realized it was almost midnight and at midnight most people were out drinking with their friends or already going to bed.

We walked about halfway down the pier in silence, just looking around and enjoying each other's company.

Connor tugged my hand and pulled me to a stop. I turned to face him.

"Sofia." He began.

"Yeah?" I said.

He bit his lip for a second which made my knees feel slightly weak. "This is going to sound so cheesy... Honestly, I haven't stopped thinking about you since I asked you out on your birthday. You are literally all that's on my mind."

I felt my cheeks heat up. "Same, honestly."

He chuckled and began leading me back the way we'd come. "Let's go sit on the beach."

Before we reached the sand I kicked off my heels and carried them in my hand as we walked closer to the water.

Once we'd found a good place to sit, Connor sat down and I sat right beside him.

His arm wound around my waist and held me to his side and my head fell onto his shoulder.

It was quiet for a few minutes and we just stared out at the waves.

"Can I ask you something?" He asked suddenly.

I nodded. "Anything."

"Do you ever want to get away? Just take a few days, a week even, no youtube or texting or calling or anything. Have time to yourself, maybe stay in a little cottage in the woods. Do you ever think about that?"

I nodded again. "All the time. Everything's always so crazy with videos and meetups, people always texting and calling and emailing and skyping. It gets to be a bit too much sometimes. I literally dream of getting away."

"Why don't we?" He asked.

"What do you mean?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, maybe you and I could find a place to rent for a few days or whatever. Some place where you can sit outside and go hiking and it's quiet and peaceful. We could get a place for a few days, just you and me, and relax. Honestly, I think if I were to go do something like that with one person, I would want it to be you. We kind of understand each other, you know? I feel like the two of us are a bit more down to just go relax more so than some other people."

I stared at him as he spoke, watching the change in his facial expression.

When I didn't speak right away, he did. "It's all just hypothetical, of course."

No it wasn't.

"I think it's a good idea. Listen to this, okay. Say we both upload videos on a Monday, explain in our videos that we're going to be busy for whatever reason and we're not going to be tweeting and blogging and whatnot. Then we could go that night, spend four or five or seven days in some little cottage or cabin or whatever. We could hike or swim or just do absolutely nothing." I said, the more I talked and thought about it, the better the idea sounded.

"You want to?" He asked.

I nodded once. "Yes. I want to."

He grinned before pulling me in for a kiss.

We broke away a moment later and I smiled. "So, when do we go?"

He thought for a minute. "What is today's date?"

"It is currently May 23, it's a Friday." I said.

"What about like three weeks from now? June 9th?" He suggested.

I nodded. "June 9th sounds perfect to me."

He stood up, pulling me with him. "Come on, let's go to my house and find some place we can rent a cabin."

I grinned and followed him to the road where he flagged down another cab which took us back to Franco's so that we could get Connor's car and go to his house.

The whole drive there we were talking animatedly about different things we could do and what we should tell people and if people would get suspicious if we went missing for a week at the same time.

After getting to the O2L house, locking ourselves in Connor's room, and surfing the internet looking at cottages and cabins for roughly three hours, we found the perfect place.

"It's a nice hike to Lake Arrowhead, not too far. It's a good size for just us. One bedroom, one bath. There's a nice living room, there's a fitness room with a lot of equiptment but I doubt we'll need that. It's completely away from anyone and anything. There's no tv, no wifi. It's exactly what we're looking for. It's also available from June 9th to June 16th for the low price of $1050." Connor explained as we looking through pictures of the cabin.

It was nice and small, well decorated, and in the perfect spot. Not to mention that a rate of $150 per night was rather outstanding.

I nodded. "That's the one."

"Do you want me to book it on my credit card?" He asked.

"Yeah. And we can go halfies, I'll write you a check for my half tomorrow." I said.

"You don't have to." He shrugged off the idea.

I sighed. "Connor, do you remember the first time we hung out? I got mad because you insisted on paying for a $6 coffee. This is like $500 for a cabin rental. I am paying you."

He rolled his eyes. "Let's make a deal. Let me pay for the cabin, you buy the food and stuff we'll need to take with us."

"Fine." I said finally.

It seemed fair enough. We would need a fair amount of food and other things for spending a week away from civilization.

Connor booked the cabin before rolling on his side to look at me.

We were laying on his bed in a nest of soft blankets and pillows.

"People are going to get suspicious." I stated.

He nodded. "Unfortunately."

For five months, soon to be six, Connor and I had kept our relationship a secret from the fans. We never brought up the concept of one of us being in a relationship in any of our videos, tweets, facebook posts, anything.

We didn't post pictures together on instagram usually unless we were in a group setting, or unless people thought we were in a group setting.

It was kept on the down low as best as possible. It wasn't that we didn't want the fans to know, but we kind of didn't... Our friends all knew, of course. But we wanted it to be just us.

My phone went off a few times in quick succession and I unlocked it to find six texts.

From Tyler Oakley: Have you checked twitter? Drama alert.

From Troye Sivan: People are so invasive sometimes. Avoid Twitter and Instagram for now. The drama is unbearable. Love you.

From Olivia Mason: I am going to kill everyone. Why are they so fucking concerned with your life? God damn.

From Sawyer Hartman: Invasion of privacy is one of those things that comes with having a large following of people, but that doesn't make it suck any less. Sorry about everyone on twitter, tumblr, and instagram.

From Grace Helbig: I don't know if you've seen all of the drama yet but I you haven't and that you never do. People need to mind their own business. Big hugs from me, Mamrie, and Hannah. Love you.

From Caspar Lee: I don't see why everyone is so concerned with every little thing you do. It's your life, not theirs. I'm sorry about all of this social media drama. Don't let it bother you. I love you.

I showed Connor the texts and he was just as confused as I was.

"I want to check to see what's happening but I'm scared." I admitted.

"I'm checking twitter now." He said, pulling his phone out.

We both opened the twitter app to find heaps of notifications, even more so than usual.

Apparently before leaving for our date, dear Connor had also taken a picture and posted it with the exact same caption as mine, "Night out."

Connor and I were both unaware of the other person posting the picture and that caption. But as soon as we did, and as soon as the fans noticed, all hell broke loose.

People had put the pictures side by side in a small collage, surrounded by other pictures of us. All of the pictures and posts that had been sent to us contained the same hashtag. Confia.

Shit.

"So... People are suspicious." I said.

"Instagrams even worse than twitter." Connor said.

I checked, he was right.

After closing the instagram app, I stared at my tumblr app. Did I dare open it? Did I want to venture into the void?

Apparently yes.

I clicked the button and immediately searched the Confia hashtag. There were a lot of people that supported it and even referred to us as their OTP, others weren't so happy. They said we didn't belong together, there was no proof, people needed to mind their own business, and so on.

I noticed an almost pained look on Connor's face and I glanced at his phone screen, he was still on Twitter. "What's wrong?"

He shook his head. "Nothing, nothing."

"Con, what is it?" I asked, snatching his phone from his hand.

"Babe, give it back." He said.

I rolled away and looked at the hashtag he'd found and was trending worldwide.

"ReasonsWeHateSofia." I said.

"Babe..."

I was shocked. "Why do they hate me?"

Connor reached over and ripped the phone from my hands. "Who cares? It's stupid."

I noticed another quick round of texts come in. Five, this time.

From Olivia Mason: Twitter is full of obnoxious little sluts and I hope every single one of them chokes on the dicks lodged in their throats. I love you heaps. Ignore the hate.

From Tyler Oakley: No matter what people say, you're one of the best people I know. I love you endlessly and I am going to stick up for you no matter what. Big hugs.

From Troye Sivan: I fucking hate everyone. You're an absolute princess and you don't deserve any of this shit. Ignore what people say, you haven't done a single thing wrong. (four heart emojis)

From Marcus Butler: Opened twitter to find more drama than I could've expected. I'm sorry all of this has happened. Fuck what everyone says, alright? I think you're amazing. Keep your head up. I'm always here to talk if you need it.

From Caspar Lee: I love you. I'm sorry about twitter being full of cunts. They're all insecure and you don't deserve any of the shit they give you. Don't let them get to you. No matter what those bitches say, I love you, Connor loves you, we ALL love you. Especially me. I wish I were in America right now because I would find you and give you the biggest hugs. Unfortunately, I can't do that right now. Cyber hugs, I guess. I can't wait till I get to see you. Keep smiling. I love you so much.

If people were being this sweet, I knew it had to be bad. I was so scared to check the hashtag but I had to do it.

I opened the twitter app again and found the hashtag.

"She's so fucking ugly, ew. Why does anyone even talk to her? She's nasty and irrelevant."

"Sofia is such a whale. I bet Connor and the rest of the O2L guys only hang out for her because they feel bad for her."

"Sofia's not even fucking nice. I met her at VidCon and she was sooooo stuck up and snobby. Barely even talked to anyone. Fucking diva."

"You know the only reason Connor hangs around with her is because she's obsessed with him and he's too nice to admit that he hates her."

"O2L hang out with Sofia for charity. They're trying to save the whales. Hahaha."

"Sofia's not even funny. Why do people watch her videos? I don't even understand. People only watch her because of the collabs she's done with people who matter. She's a flop."

The more I scrolled, the worse it got. Comments about my content turned into ones about my weight and how fat I was. Then it got even worse. Weight comments turned to comments telling me to kill myself because no one would care if I was gone.

Usually hate didn't bother me. But I'd also never encountered hate on such a big scale. There were thousands and thousands of tweets about how people hated my guts.

"Sofia!" Connor shouted.

I jumped and looked toward him. "What?"

"I've been trying to get your attention for five minutes. Stop looking at that fucking hashtag." He said. "They're all assholes, please ignore them."

I laid my phone on the bed. "Do you... Do you mind if I use your shower? The warm waters helps me, uh, clear my head."

He nodded and gave me a kiss before I grabbed some of the clothes I'd stashed at his house and headed into the bathroom right beside Connor's room.

I could hear things moving through the wall as I removed my dress and stepped into the shower.

I turned the water, steamed hot, and stepped under the shower head.

The water almost burned me but I didn't care. Before I realized what was happening, the tears started. They poured down my cheeks along with scalding water and now ruined mascara.

I held back a sob and slid to the ground. I sat on the floor, curled up in a ball under the water for about ten minutes.

I forced myself to stop crying and stand up although all I wanted was to waste away and go down the drain with my tears, washed away make up, and the last traces of my dignity.

When I shut the water off, I could hear Connor's voice through the wall.

"I literally do not understand how you guys could so those things to another human being, a human being most of you probably have never even met. I have never been so disgusted or infuriated by something but this is just fucking pathetic. Sofia is the best friend I've ever had and it pisses me off seeing people put her down like this. She's so smart and beautiful and hilarious and she does not deserve to hear anything that you have been saying to her."

He paused. "This is literally just so pathetic. I don't know if this is one of those things where you're all insecure or you have bring other people down to make yourself feel good but it needs to stop. Find something else to spend your time doing. And if you're doing this because she's my friend, then you might as unfollow and unsubscribe to me right now because no fan of mine will talk shit about someone who matters to me and who makes me happy."

There was another slight pause. "Another thing that I find truly disturbing is that there are some of you who are actually telling my best friend in the world to kill herself because she is worthless and no one will care if she is gone. You are disgusting if you send things like that to people. Any account I see that says that, will be reported by myself, my friends, and hopefully my loyal fans, and then will promptly be shut down. If I see anyone I follow in this hashtag that is not there to stick up for Sof, then I will unfollow and block you. This is not a game. This is an eighteen year old girl I am happy to call my best friend and I will stick up for her in anyway that I can. If that means we have to take drastic measures like this, then so be it. Now, for those of you who support Sofia, please tweet her under the hashtag ReasonsWeLoveSofia and send her some nice asks on her tumblr. And a big thank you to everyone who has already sent her supportive tweets and messages, I know it means a lot to her and to myself as well. I'm sorry to all of the loyal fans for this being such a boring and maybe slightly harsh video but this just needed to be said. I will also be uploading videos for O2L and my main channel on Monday so make sure to check those out. Bye, guys."

I hurried to dry off and get dressed before running back into Connor's room. He was already uploading the video to his computer.

He looked my direction when I shut the door and I immediately ran towards him. He jumped up right before I got to him and I basically threw myself at him.

"You didn't have to do that." I said against his chest.

He squeezed me tightly. "Yes I did."

"Thank you." I whispered.

"You're welcome, princess." He muttered.

I sat on Connor's lap while he edited the video, cutting out parts that were way too harsh and any long pauses. After it was edited, he uploaded the video with the title "No Hate."

He stood up, holding me up with only one arm, and turned towards the bed.

He lifted the sheet, laid me down, and crawled in beside me before flicking the light off.

"Con?" I whispered.

"Yeah, Sof?" He whispered back.

"Thanks again."

His lips found mine and I smiled into the kiss.

After about fifteen minutes of a heated make out session, I decided it was time for bed.

I broke away from the kiss, peppered a few kisses along Connor's jaw, and nuzzled my head into his neck.

"Goodnight." He whispered, not at all bothered by the abrupt ending.

"Goodnight." I whispered back.

~!Hope you guys liked this chapter. Sorry I took so long to update. Please review and let me know what you think. I love you guys. xoxo -Aly!~


	9. Six Months

"My quiff game is so not strong right now." Connor said, looking in the mirror, trying to fix his hair that had gone limp.

"My bump game is strong as ever." I said, adjusting one of the bobby pins that held my bangs into a perfect bump.

"Okay, there's no need to brag." Connor laughed, finally getting his hair fixed.

I fanned my face. "Is it hot in here?"

"Just me." He said.

I laughed. "Seriously, through. I'm sweating."

"Then it's obviously just you." He winked.

I rolled my eyes playfully. "You're such a fucking idiot."

He sat down beside me on his bed. "Are you ready?"

I nodded.

He reached up to turn on the camera.

I burped loudly. "Shit. Sorry. Chipotle happened."

Connor laughed. "What a great start to a video."

I smiled. "I feel like I'm going to lose subscribers for that."

"I like that you just know I'm not going to cut that."

I laughed. "Don't cut the burps. They're funny."

Connor turned back to the camera. "Hey what's up, guys? It's Connor."

"And Sofia!" I waved.

"Today we decided to do yet another collab and we have some news for you guys." He said.

He grabbed my hand and squeezed. "I've been keeping this a secret for almost six months now but I figured it's about time we let you guys in on it."

He paused and glanced at me. "As of her birthday, December 19th, Sofia has been my girlfriend."

"Yes, the rumors are true. The ship is sailing." I said with a giggle.

Connor's arm went around my waist. "So, I guess the thing to do when you're a couple is the boyfriend/girlfriend tag. And today, that's what we're doing."

"But it's a little different. We didn't want to do the same boring questions so we made up ten of our own, ranging from easy to hard. In this video, Connor's going to ask me his questions, then we're going to make one over on my channel where I ask ten of my own questions." I explained.

"You ready?" Connor asks, unlocking his phone.

"Bring it." I said.

He laughed. "Alright, question one, what sports did I do in high school?"

"Cross country and swimming." I said.

He nodded. "And what swimming event did I win state champion for?"

"The mile." I said after a second of thought.

"Where did I attend college for two years?"

"Saint John's. You literally wore the hoodie yesterday, dumbass." I laughed.

He paused. "Fuck. I did, didn't I? Shit. Okay, moving on. Question three, what are my siblings' names?"

"Dustin, Nicola, and Brandon." I said.

"That's easy because you're friends with all of them now." He chuckled.

"It's true. I actually talked to Nicola on the phone like twenty minutes before I came over." I said.

"I feel like she tells you embarrassing things about my childhood."

I nodded. "She does."

He laughed. "Damn it. Okay, you should know this one from my old videos. How did I get the c-shaped scar on my head?"

"You ran into a no parking sign. I will always remember that for two reasons. One, it's one of the dumbest things I've heard. Two, we went running one time and you nearly ran into another no parking sign and I started laughing so hard we had to stop for like five minutes."

He laughed. "I remember that. Question five, what is the most used app on my phone?"

"Twitter."

"Fuck. I'm going to stump you. What is my favorite thing to get at Starbucks?"

"A latte." I guessed. "I literally just forgot everything you drink ever."

He shook his head. "It's an iced caramel macchiato, light on the ice."

"That's right! Because we get the same thing. Frick." I groaned.

"Who is my cat Pre named after?" He asked.

"Steve Prefontaine, the Olympic track guy." I said.

He nodded. "Good job. I didn't think you would get his first name. What are my favorite kind of shoes?"

"Vans or Toms."

"That was easy. Two left, okay? What's my biggest fear?"

"Spiders. I always end up killing them for you because you're a big baby." I teased.

"They're creepy! What kind of creature had eight legs?" He defended.

I snorted. "You should see some of the spiders we have in Australia. Our spiders eat your spiders as a snack."

He shivered. "They're so weird."

"I had a pet tarantula once. I had to get rid of him because my mom was scared of him." I said."His name was Gandalf."

Connor laughed. "Okay, last question. Where was our first date?"

"Starbucks and Hilltop Park, kinda. Our first legit date was to that little French place on Sunset then we watched movies at me and Tyler's place." I said.

"Yes! You only missed one. That was good. I'm going to be so bad at your questions and I'm going to look like a bad boyfriend." He whined.

I giggled and kissed his cheek. "I know you're a good boyfriend and that's all that really matters."

He smiled. "Thanks, babe."

After a pause he spoke again. "So, I have some more news for you guys. I am not going to be posting on any of my social media sites for the next seven days because I'm taking a vacation and going to be staying somewhere that has no Wi-Fi. I might blog part of the week and post it when we get back so you can see. And yes, I do mean we, because Sofia will be going with me."

"It's gonna be lots of fun." I said.

"It is! So, if you guys want to see me try to answer some questions I should probably know about Sof, go ahead and click on her lovely face and check out the video on her channel."

After finishing his outro, we got set up for my video.

"Ready?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Hey, guys! Sofia here!" I waved to the camera. "And joining me today is my all time fave, Connor Franta."

He waved. "Hi, guys!"

"Today we have a secret for you guys!" I announced. "Ever since I turned 18 in December, Connor and I have been dating. I don't know if this is a big surprise to you guys or not but I'm really happy with him and I'm just hoping you won't try to start drama or anything."

He squeezed my hand and I smiled.

"I'm also happy to announce that I will be leaving tonight to take a week off from everything. Because of that I won't be posting on Twitter, Tumblr, or anything. Connor and I are going to be spending some nice time among nature up by Lake Arrowhead and I'm really really excited."

"Are you going to blog while we're there?" Connor asked.

I shrugged. "Not sure. Maybe. Why don't you tell everyone watching what we're doing today?"

"Boyfriend/girlfriend tag! Sort of. I asked her ten questions about me on my channel, and now she's going to ask me ten questions about herself. And I'm just really hoping that I don't end up being awful at this." He said.

I giggled. "You're going to do fine. Are you ready to start?"

He nodded. "Slay me with your questions."

"What is the number one played song on my iTunes?" I asked.

"Face Value by The Story So Far. You just played it in the car a couple days ago." He answered.

"Okay, what sports did I do I school?"

"Wouldn't it be easier to say what you didn't do?" He teased. "Soccer, track, swimming, competitive cheerleading, and volleyball."

"In grade ten I was on the winning team for three championships in all of Queensland. What sports were they?" I asked.

"Cheerleading, swimming, and soccer. You have all your medals and trophies in your room and I look at them a lot."

"Question four, what instruments can I play?"

"Drums, guitar, and piano. And you sing. I don't know if that counts."

"Listen, you thought you were going to be so bad at this and you're doing so good." I said. "What is one food I can't stand?"

"Mustard. You hate mustard." He said.

I nodded. "That's very true. Mustard is awful. What was the first band I ever saw live?"

He paused. "Wait, I know this. You have like three of their posters, don't you?"

I nodded.

"Fuck... Can I have a hint?" He asked.

"It starts with an A." I said.

He thought for a minute. "Asking Alexandria?"

"Yes!" I squeezed his hand. "Way to go."

He laughed. "I did not think I was going to get that right."

"Well, you did. Question seven, what was the color of my bedroom walls in Bowen? You should know this from my videos." I asked.

"Oh! It's... It's... Shoot. Purple. It's purple." He said.

"Yep! What size shoe do I wear?"

"Are you serious? I have no clue. Let me look at your foot, I'll try to judge it." He stared down at my feet. "Seven."

I shook my head. "Nope. Five and a half. I have tiny feet."

"Apparently I suck at guessing too." He chuckled.

"But that's the only one you've missed and there are only two questions left." I said. "This one you might not get. What is my favorite brand of clothing?"

"It's UNIF, right? Is that the brand that made that Repeat Sins shirt you always wear?"

I nodded. "Yes! That is my favorite shirt ever, oh my god."

He laughed. "I always know when you end up doing laundry because that's the first shirt you wear."

"That's very true." I admitted. "Last one, what is the first movie we watched together?"

"I don't know which one we watched first but we had a big movie night here. We watched Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Batman, and The Hunger Games."

I nodded. "I think we watched Lord of the Rings first because by the time we started the first Harry Potter movie it was already like six am."

"Yeah, it was more of a movie weekend than movie night." He said.

"Well, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings are both the length of an entire pregnancy so it takes a while to watch them."

"You measure time in pregnancies?" He joked.

I nodded. "Always. But if you want to watch something that's not as long as a pregnancy but is still very entertaining, click on Connor's quiff now to watch the video we did on his channel."

"And make sure you're subscribed to both of us and follow all of our social media sites."

"And give this video and Connor's video both a big thumbs up!" I said. "Thank you guys for watching. Stay chill. Bye!"

I shut off the camera and flopped back down on Connor's bed. "Videos are stressful. What time is it?"

"Noon." He said, uploading our videos to the computer.

"I am not excited to edit." I groaned.

"I'll edit your video if you drive tonight." He offered.

"How far is it?" I asked.

"Hour and a half, two hours." He said.

I thought for a minute. "Deal. I'll go downstairs and fix some lunch. Does salad sound okay?"

He nodded.

I skipped downstairs and into the kitchen.

I opened the fridge to grab lettuce, spinach, a tomato, a cucumber, shredded cheese, and some of the leftover chicken Connor and I had grilled up the night before.

After chopping everything up, placing it in bowls, and drizzling balsamic vinaigrette over the top, I carried the food upstairs.

I pushed Connor's bedroom door open and closed with my butt before sitting down on the bed and handing him his salad.

We ate as he worked on editing and I looked at more pictures of the cabin we were renting.

After a few hours, both videos were edited and in the process of being uploaded.

Once they were up, we posting links on twitter, tumblr, and facebook before putting our laptops away.

We went through our suitcases to make sure everything was packed before putting on shoes to go to the store.

Once we got to Ralph's, Connor grabbing a shopping cart and I pulled up the list I made on my phone.

We bought meat, veggies, fruit, lots of drinks, and a few other necessities.

The total came up to $350

We took the food home, and packed it into three coolers. Two coolers held food while another held drinks, some if them being alcoholic.

Connor loaded the coolers into the back of the car and I lugged our bags down the stairs.

We'd already said goodbye to all of our friends so we got in the car.

I started the car and adjusted my mirrors while Connor set the address in the GPS.

"Ready?" I breathed.

He nodded, a smile spreading across his face.

I pulled away from the curb and headed in the direction the GPS told me to go.

We talked excitedly as I drove and the two hours seemed to fly by. Around seven pm, we were in the middle of no where and according to the GPS, we were five minutes from our destination.

A few minutes later, the GPS told me to make a right turn and that's when we saw the cabin.

I pulled into the driveway and we jumped out.

"Holy shit." We said.

Connor ran around the car and scooped me into a tight hug. "This is it. This is perfect."

~!AuthorNote!~ Sorry if there are typos in this, I wrote it on my phone. I'm sorry it took so long to get posted as well, I had it saved on my laptop but the file got deleted somehow. Please review and tell me what you guys think. Love you. -Aly


	10. Reading

Connor and I carried the coolers and suitcases up the pathway to the front door and went inside.

"Oh my god." I breathed. "This is so beautiful."

We sat everything down beside the door and started looking around. It really was beautiful. I ddin't know what kind of wood the walls were made of but it was warm and inviting. The furniture was cute and cozy. It was perfect.

I found the one bedroom in the cabin. "Connor, come look at this."

Windows lined the bedroom walls and all you could see was all of the trees surrounding the property.

"Wow." Connor muttered when he walked in behind me.

We admired the view for a minute.

"You should see the bathroom." Connor said.

I followed him to the bathroom. The countertop and the shower walls were made of different slabs of stone and there was a large, stonecarved arrowhead set into one of the shower walls, much like the one that was above the fireplace in the living room.

We picked up the coolers from the door and took them into the kitchen. I organized all of the cold stuff in the fridge and freezer while Connor stocked up the pantry.

"So, since it's already getting dark I think we should just stay in tonight, maybe watch a movie since there's a dvd player. Tomorrow morning we can hike down to the lake and go swimming." I suggested as I closed the fridge door.

Connor shut the pantry and turned towards me. "I like that idea. What dvds did you pack?"

I walked over to the door and picked up the bag that I knew my dvds were in and unzipped it. "Let's see. I have the first season of American Horror Story, PS I Love You, Lady and the Tramp, The Shining, The Omen, Anchorman, 40 Year Old Virgin, American Pie, and The Notebook."

"Scary movies, comedies, chick flicks, and a love story about animated dogs." He nodded. "Great collection."

"Listen, anyone who says Lady and the Tramp is not one of the best love stories of all time is a liar and I want nothing to do with them." I said, putting the dvds back in the bag and setting it down.

He laughed. "How about we make some food first? Then we can decide what to watch."

I nodded. "Sounds good."

I looked through the fridge at some of the food we'd brought. "I can't decide if I want to make chicken or just a frozen pizza."

"I think the obvious choice is pizza." Connor said.

I laughed. "Alright, preheat the oven."

He did, after taking a minute to figure out how it worked.

"Something just occured to me." I said.

"What?" He asked.

"We have a fireplace and marshmallows."

"Smores. Yes."

I laughed. "And we can eat out on the deck."

He nodded. "Sounds good."

The oven was done heating so I pulled a frozen pizza out of the freezer, took it out of the box, and slid it onto the rack before setting the timer.

I opened the fridge again to find a drink. "Do you want a beer?"

"Yeah, of course." He said.

I pulled out two bottles of Samuel Adams, found the bottle opened to take the caps off, and handed one to Connor.

"I'm really happy we decided to come here." Connor said a minute later.

I nodded. "Same. It's really nice here and I just... I don't know. I like it a lot. It's peaceful."

We talked about what we wanted to do over the next seven days while we were waiting for the pizza to cook. I was perched on the counter while Connor leaned agaist the counter opposite from me.

When the timer finally went off, Connor carefully took the pizza from the oven and cut it before placing a few slices onto plates.

We carried our beer and pizza out to the deck and sat down at the small table to eat.

It was getting pretty dark out but the view was still absolutely incredible.

"Are you worried about what people are going to think about us doing this?" Connor asked after I took a bite of pizza.

I thought while I chewed. I swallowed before speaking. "Not really. I mean, maybe a little bit. I just don't want there to be heaps of drama and bullshit, you know? I don't really care what people think of me or us doing this. I just don't want it to be like that awful hashtag that started."

He nodded. "I understand that. I'm not worried. I think most of the fans, the 'real fans' I guess, are going to be happy for us. I don't think there's going to be all that much drama."

"I hope not." I muttered, taking a drink of beer.

We ended up eating the entire pizza and drinking an entire six pack of beer for dinner, which was lovely.

After eating, we unpacked all of our clothes into the closets in the bedroom before heading back into the living room.

There was a shelf full of books that I decided to look through.

I gasped when I found what was easily my favorite book of all time. I grabbed the book, sat down on the loveseat, and turned the lamp on. I opened the book to read.

"What did you find?" Connor asked, sitting down beside me.

"Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman." I said. "It's my favorite book ever, basically."

"If you like it, it must be good." He said, laying down with his head on my lap.

I smiled. "It is really good."

"Read it to me."

I smiled again and began reading.

(Connor's POV)

I loved Sofia's voice. I loved her voice more than any other sound. And hearing her read her favorite book out loud made her sound even better. The cadence of her voice was made to read books out loud.

The book was kind of great, as well. Honestly, the book could've been entirely awful but I would still love it just because she read it to me.

I stared up at her as her eyes moved quickly across the page and she read easily.

She finished the first chapter and closed the book, placing it on the table. She asked "Do you like it so far?"

"I love it." I said.

She smiled and her small hand ran itself through my hair gently.

"I'll read more tomorrow if you want." She said.

I smiled. "Sounds like a plan."

She glanced at the clock on the wall. "It's already midnight."

"Are you tired?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Not really."

I grabbed her hand, the one that wasn't playing with my hair. "Sof?"

"Hmm?" She asked.

"I love you."

Her eyes widened but she smiled brightly. "I love you too."

I squeezed her hand tightly.

"Connor?" She said a moment later.

"Yeah?"

She stifled a yawn. "I'm tired. Can we cuddle and go to sleep?"

I stood up, pulling her with me, and guided her to the bedroom.

She crawled into the bed immediately and I pulled my tshirt off before laying down right next to her.

She curled up against my side, her head resting on my shoulder and one of her arms draped across my stomach.

I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and pulled the blanket across us.

"Goodnight." She whispered.

"Goodnight, babe."

~!Author'sNote!~ This was just a short little filler chapter because I wanted to get something posted. But hey, they finally said I love you and they're at the cabin so that's cute. Hopefully I can get more chapters up soon for you guys. Please review and let me know what you thought of this chapter. Love you. -Aly


	11. Hiking

(Sofia's POV)

I dug through the closet in search of my favorite bright pink bikini for about five minutes before finally finding it and pulling it out.

I hurried into the bathroom with my bikini, a tank top, and a pair of shorts in my hand.

When I shut the door, I stripped down and put my bikini on.

I stood in the mirror, shifting and turning in various directions to ensure that the bikini looked perfect. It did. Then I put on a pair of light blue shorts, and a slouchy grey tank top. I left the rest of my clothes in the hamper before skipping back to the bedroom.

Connor was sitting on the edge of the bed, tying his shoes. "Ready?"

"Almost. I have to put my hair up super quick and get my shoes on." I said, sitting down at the vanity and quickly brushing my hair and pulling it up into a ponytail. "Can you toss me a pair of socks from the dresser?"

He nodded, grabbed a pair of my tiny ankle socks and threw them to me.

I caught them and pulled them on before slipping into my grey and pink Nike's.

"Now I'm ready." I said.

Connor slung a small drawstring bag over his back and I picked up my own. The bags held sun screen, water bottles, and towels for when we got to the lake.

I put on my sunglasses as we headed out the door and found one of the nearby hiking trails that was less than half a mile from our front door.

The trail definitely wasn't one for beginners though. There were loads of slopes and steep climbs and various obstacles. I was sweating by the time we'd made it one mile.

I stopped suddenly when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. I tugged the back of Connor's shirt and he turned around, following my eyes.

"Look at the baby deer!" I whispered. "It's so cute."

The deer was only a few yards away and I could see it's nose twitch as it sniffed around.

We stared at it in awe for a minute because it was literally one of the most adorable animals I had ever seen in my life.

"That deer could be a model." I whispered.

Connor chuckled.

"Hush!" I said.

The deer sniffed around for another minute before running away swiftly.

"The was the cutest deer I've ever seen in my entire life. I want twenty." I said.

"Sof, you can't have a pet deer, they're wild animals." Connor said.

I sighed. "I know. But I wish I could."

I began climbing over the boulder ahead of us but I was a bit too short to reach a good handhold to pull myself up.

I jumped in hopes of being able to quickly grab on and pull myself up but my attempts failed.

"This is prejudice, okay? Prejudice against short people." I said with my hands on my hips.

"Need a boost?" Connor asked, smirking.

I glared at him for a moment before nodding. "Yeah."

He laughed, grabbed my hips, and lifted me easily.

I reached up to grab onto the rock and pulled myself up to the top.

As I lowered myself down the opposite side of the boulder, Connor pulled himself over as well.

We continued walking along the winding path for a few more miles before the trees began to think out slightly and I could see the lake ahead of us.

"Hey, we're almost there!" I said.

We sped up, practically running down the path.

When we were out of the trees, we slowed to a jog.

"There's like no one here." I said, looking around the beach.

"That's weird. You'd think everyone would be here." Connor said.

"It is kind of early. What time did we leave the cabin? 7:30? It's only like 8:30 now. Everyone's probably still in bed." I suggested.

He nodded. "Probably. It's summer. Normal people don't get up at this time."

We found a good spot on the sand, in the middle of the only two groups of people there. On our left, a guy was fishing with his son, on our right, a family of four was sitting in the sand together.

I pulled the towel out of my bag and laid it out before kicking off my shoes and socks, pulling my shorts off, and peeling my tank top over my head.

Connor was already sitting shirtless on his own towel.

"Stop staring." I blushed, throwing my tank top at him.

He chuckled. "You look great."

I realized Connor hadn't seen me in anything less than shorts and a tank top so he was getting quite an eyefull.

I stuffed my clothes in my bag and laid back on my towel.

"I'm already loving this." I said, turning my head to look at Connor who was now laying down as well.

He smiled. "Me too."

We spent the entire day laying on the beach and swimming.

Around noon, the beach really started to fill up but didn't leave until almost everyone else had left as well.

The hike back was easier the second time around even though we were slightly more tired. We were already familiar with the trail and were able to make it back to the cabin fairly quickly.

As we walked in the door, I glanced at the clock. "It's already 6:45."

"Damn, we were gone a long ass time."

I kicked my shoes off by the door, put my socks and my bag in the bedroom, and walked back into the kitchen in my bikini, which I had hiked home in.

"What do you want for dinner?" Connor asked, looking through the fridge.

I shrugged. "I'm starving so I'm fine with anything."

"Burgers it is." He said, pulling out a small package of hamburger meat.

"I can make some grilled peppers." I suggested, looking at the green, red, and yellow peppers we had. "If we don't use them soon they'll go bad anyways."

He nodded. "Sounds good."

"If you want to go start the grill up, I can get the patties and peppers ready." I said.

"Thanks." He headed outside to the back deck to fire up the grill and I pulled on a pair of rubber gloves to avoid touching raw meat.

I made two balls out of the meat, lightly seasoned them, and smashed them into patties before putting them on a plate, grabbing the peppers, and heading out to the deck.

The grill was just about ready.

"How do you make the grilled peppers?" Connor asked.

"Grill them for a few minutes, peel them, chop them up, add olive oil and different seasoning, then eat." I said.

"Okay, so I won't put those on until the burgers are almost done." He said.

I nodded. "I'll be right back. I'm gonna grab a couple beers."

I skipped inside, grabbed two cans of beer, and hurried back outside.

Connor had just put the burgers on the grill.

I handed him one of the beers and we cracked them open before sitting down on two of the chairs.

"Do I look burnt?" I asked, looking at my chest and shoulders.

Connor shook his head. "You just look tan. Maybe a little red, but I think that's just from the sun setting."

I stepped inside the door, out of the sunlight, and looked at my skin. He was right, I was just really really tan.

I stepped back outside. "Okay, I'm fine."

Connor patted his leg and I sat on his lap.

I leaned against his bare chest and took a drink of my beer. "Can we stay here forever?"

He chuckled. "God, I wish."

"I love you." I whispered.

His hand that was resting on my hip squeezed tightly. "I love you too."

I pressed a kiss to his impeccable jawline and he kissed my forehead.

We sat together for a few more minutes before Connor needed to get up and tend to the food.

But as soon as he sat back down, he pulled me back into his lap.

We cuddled in the chair, just talking and drinking, until the food got done.

We took the burgers and peppers inside.

Connor put the burgers on buns along with some cheese while I cut up the peppers, drizzled olive oil over them, and sprinkled a few spices on as well.

We but the burgers and peppers onto our plates and sat at the breakfast bar with our plates and new cans of beer.

The food was delicious, of course. And I couldn't think of anything better than beer to wash it down with.

When we were done eating, we cleaned up the mess and made our way into the living room.

Connor sat down on the loveseat while I put the first disc of American Horror Story into the dvd player.

I pushed play and sat down with Connor.

He was leaned up against one arm of the loveseat and I sat between his legs, my back pressed to his chest.

I shivered. The air was on in the cabin and I was still wearing only my bikini.

Connor pulled the blanket off of the back of the couch and draped it over us.

"Thanks." I muttered.

He kissed my cheek. "No problem."

We made it through about an episode and a half of AHS before Connor began to get distracted.

His lips trailed down my neck and I tried to stay focused on the tv.

He bit down and I whimpered. "Con, don't leave any marks."

He chuckled. "Oops."

His lips continued moving along my shoulder.

I turned around, straddling Connor's hips.

We'd been making out for nearly twenty minutes when Connor's hands slid down my back and grabbed my bum.

I giggled and trailed my lips down his neck, working on giving him a hickey to match the one he'd given me.

My lips moved back to his and I felt his fingers tugging lightly at the tie on the back of my bikini top.

I stood up, turned the tv and dvd player off, grabbed Connor's hands and began pulling him to the bedroom.

"What are we doing?" He asked, following me closely.

"What do you think we're doing?" I winked.

His green eyes widened a fraction and he pushed me back onto the bed.

He hovered over me, his lips moving with mine.

The strings on the top of my bikini came undone easily and the pink fabric found it's way to the floor, followed by the matching bottoms and Connor's swim trunks.

"I love you so much." Connor whispered.

"I love you too." I said.

~!That was pretty cute, a little heated there at the end, but ya know, that's half the fun. Sorry if there are any typos, I was kind of in a hurry to write this and didn't have loads of time to read over it. Please review and let me know what you think, I really love hearing your opinions. xoxo. -Aly!~


	12. Confessions

"Ouch." I groaned as I sat up in bed, my whole body hurt.

Connor wasn't laying beside me, which was strange at first until I realized the water was running in the bathroom. He must've been taking a shower.

I climbed out of bed, slipped on a pair of panties and one of Connor's tanks.

I shuffled out into the kitchen to get started on breakfast. I made coffee first before I fried up a little bit of bacon, made toast, and cut up some fruit.

I was just taking the bacon out of the pan when Connor walked in, wearing nothing but boxers, his hair still wet.

"Morning." He said.

"Morning." I smiled and slid a cup of coffee across the counter to him.

I put food onto plates and handed him one.

"This looks amazing."

I smiled and sat down at the breakfast bar next to him.

We ate breakfast quickly because we were both starving.

When we were done, Connor jumped up to do the dishes.

"What are we doing today?" He asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know yet. I wanna stay fairly close to home, it looks like it might storm and I'm really sore."

"Sore from the hike or... Other things?" Connor asked.

I laughed. "A little bit of both, honestly."

He grinned and I rolled my eyes playfully.

"We could watch AHS again. Maybe make it through more than one episode this time." Connor suggested.

I giggled. "Sounds good to me."

As he finished up the dishes, I skipped into the living room and turned on the dvd player.

He walked into the living room and sat down and I pushed play.

When I turned around to walk over to the loveseat, Connor's eyes widened.

"What?" I asked.

"Your legs." He said.

I looked down to see a few dark bruises lining the inside of my thighs. "Oh!"

"Did I do that?" He asked.

"Apparently. I didn't... I didn't really notice last night." I said, a light blush heating my cheeks.

"Does it hurt?"

I shifted my weight from foot to foot a few times and winced. "A little bit, actually."

Connor pulled me into his lap and kissed my cheek. "I'm sorry, baby."

"Don't be." I said.

He massaged my thighs gently throughout several episodes of AHS, which did help quite a bit.

After spending about five hours fighting sleep on the loveseat, Connor and I decided to go back to bed.

I shuffled into the bedroom, Connor a step behind me, and fell into bed.

Connor laid down beside me and I turned my head to look at him.

Both of us were suddenly not tired.

"What are you thinking about?" I asked.

"Life, I guess." He said, staring up at the ceiling.

"What about life?"

He chewed the corner of his lip as he thought, a habit I had as well. "Do you remember back in February when things started changing? You said I started acting different and I kind of blew it off."

"Yeah, I remember." I said.

He sighed. "Well, I've been a bit depressed. I don't mean just sad, actually depressed. Like, I know things are going to get better, things are going to change, life is going to work itself out, I just don't know when and I'm not sure how long I'm willing to wait."

My heart dropped instantly. "Con, why didn't you say anything? Why did you hide it?"

He shrugged. "I didn't want you to worry about me, I know you've had enough to worry about yourself. I also felt kind of bad about myself just because of the fact that it seems like everytime something goes wrong in someone's life, they handle it better than I handle things going on in my life. It's getting to the point where Youtube feels like a job. My content has been absolute shit. Nothing seems right."

"First of all, I'd rather spend my time worrying about you than myself, it's easier that way. Second, you don't have to handle things as well as everyone else, you just have to learn how to handle them well enough for yourself. Third, your content isn't absolute shit. Yeah, you've been lacking a little but we all get like that sometimes. In case you don't remember, about a year ago, my videos took a nosedive. I can't even say my content was lacking because my content just wasn't there. We all get that way, we all feel upset, it happens. And yeah, sometimes you get stuck in that feeling, but that's okay. Because, as you said, you know it's going to work out. Just give it time." I said.

Connor rolled onto his side, facing away from me.

I rolled over and wrapped my arm around him, clutched his hand, and nuzzled my face into his neck.

His shoulders trembled as he took a deep breath.

"It's okay if you want to cry." I whispered.

"I don't want to." He muttered.

"Do you need to?" I asked.

"Probably."

I squeezed his hand. "Don't stop yourself. It helps to cry, believe me."

After another minute of fighting with himself, he fianlly let it go with a body wracking sob.

I held him tightly, tears of my own forming from seeing how upset he was. I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed it before. I didn't know how I couldn't see it, and I hated myself for it.

Connor mumbled something but his face was buried in the pillow and I couldn't understand him.

"What did you say, babe?" I asked quietly.

He shifted onto his back but I still head onto him tightly.

"I think I need to stop making videos on O2L." He said.

I froze briefly. "Are you sure that's what you want? I know how much that channel means to you."

"I don't really want to, I need to. I need to have more time to focus on me, and making sure I'm happy." He explained.

"If this is what you need, if you think this is what's best for you, then I think you should do it." I said. "No matter what you decide, if it's what you want, then I'm going to support you."

"I love you." He mumbled when I wiped tears from his cheeks.

"I love you."

He rolled to face me and buried his face in my neck. His arm slipped around my waist and mine went around his shoulders.

We cuddled like that for about thirty minutes before Connor fell asleep.

Unfortuantely, he wasn't asleep for long before he began to stir.

I looked down at him to see his eyes clenched tightly shut.

"Con?"

He didn't respond, he was still asleep.

His arm suddenly tightened around my waist, squeezing me so tightly that it almost hurt. He whimpered. "No!"

"Connor!" I said, shaking his shoulders.

He didn't wake, his arm tightened around my waist even more and I whined. "Ow."

"No!" He said louder this time.

"Babe, wake up." I shook him again.

Still, he didn't stir.

"Connor!" I shouted.

He jerked awake, jumping so far away that he nearly rolled off the bed.

A sheen of sweat covered his forehead and a few pieces of hair stuck. His eyes were wide and scared looking.

"You had a bad dream." I said.

He breathed heavily, his arms shaking slightly.

I got up from the bed. "Just relax for a second, I'm going to make you some tea."

I hurried into the kitchen, filled the kettle with water and put it on the stove to heat up before dropped a tea bag into a mug.

The kettle began to whistle a minute later and I removed it from the stove and poured water into the mug before carrying it into the bedroom.

Connor was laying back against the pillows, his arm slung over his eyes.

His chest was still rising and falling rapidly.

I sat on the edge of the bed beside him and placed my hand on his bare chest. "Babe?"

"What?" He sighed, not moving his arm.

"Do you want to tell me what scared you so much?" I asked.

"Everything was ruined. You left, O2L was over, I had no friends left. I was alone and I was fucking terrifying." He explained.

I laid against his chest and his arms immediately went around me. "You're not alone, you're not going to be alone. Even if everything else falls apart, I'll help you put it back together. Not just because you're my boyfriend, but because you're my best friend and I love you so much."

He smiled. "Thank you so much, princess."

I sat up and grabbed his mug of tea from the bedside table.

Connor sat up and I handed him the mug. He took a sip and winced.

"I forgot the sugar, didn't I?" I said.

He laughed.

I took the mug. "I'll be right back."

I carried the mug to the kitchen, added a little sugar and stirred it up before shuffling back into the bedroom and handing him the mug again.

"Better?" I asked.

He smiled. "Much."

After finishing his tea, Connor set the mug on the bedside table and pulled me into his lap.

"I'm proud of you." I said.

"Why's that?" He asked, his eyebrows knitted together.

"Because you finally came forward and told me that you've been upset. That takes a lot of strength and I'm proud of you."

He squeezed my hands and pulled me in for a kiss.

"I love you." I whispered.

"I love you more, princess."

I giggled. "I doubt that, Prince Charming."

"You're a dork." He laughed.

"I know, but you love me, remember?"

~!I don't really know what this chapter turned out to be but I kinda liked it and I hope you guys do too. I know it's a little sad but I felt like I really needed to have Connor leaving O2L in this story and I added some cuteness at the end so it wasn't quite as bad. Please review and let me know what you think. Love you. -Aly!~


	13. Not Right

"Hi, guys! It's Sofia. It is currently day four at the cabin and Connor and I are having the best time. The first night we just stayed in, cooked on the grill, read some books. The second day we went hiking down to the lake. Yesterday we watched American Horror Story and talked about life. And today, we're gong hiking down to the lake again, which is going to be super fun and you guys are going with us. Also, please forgive me if this vlog ends up being really lame, we all know what happens when I try to daily vlog, it's awful."

"Sof, have you seen my shoes?" Connor asked, walking into the room. "Are you actually daily vlogging?"

I laughed. "Your shoes are by the door and yes, I am vlogging."

Connor found his shoes and slipped them on.

"Oh, hey, maybe I should show you guys around the house." I said. "Currently, we are in the kitchen, where I spend most of my time. We have this nice fridge full of yummy cold thing, we have the freezer full of yummy colder things, we have the pantry full of yummy room temperature things, the oven for making yummy cold things hot."

I walked into the living room. "Here is the loveseat where I sit a lot, here is a chair where I also sit a lot, this is another chair that I sit in a lot. Here is the tv and dvd player that we use to watch movies."

I walked into the bathroom next. "This is the bathroom. We have this really nice shower, a toilet, a nice sink. This is a really nice mirror, it's fancy looking. Oh and you can see me."

I began talking in a girlier voice. "So, here's my outfit of the day. We're going hiking so I'm wearing this really nice pink sports bra, I have these lovely black shorts, they're Coach, very expensive."

"Are you trying to be a beauty guru?" Connor asked from the doorway.

I laughed. "Is it not working?"

He shook his head. "Not quite."

"Connor, would you like to show us around the rest of the house?" I asked.

"Sure." He said. "Follow me."

Connor walked to the bedroom and I followed him.

"This is the bedroom. Here's the closet where all of our clothes live. Here we have the bed that is big and comfortable and basically my favorite place here." He said. "Oh, and here's a lamp that looks like horseshoes, so rustic."

I chuckled. "So rustic."

"Oh, and look at these huge windows." He said, gesturing to the large windows lining the walls.

"The view is amazing." I said, slowly walking along the walls and getting a good shot out each window.

"There's actually a gym downstairs and stuff but we don't use that. We only go downstairs to use the hot tub." Connor explained. "Let me show you the deck."

I followed him out to the wrap around deck and showed the camera the grill, the cute set of patio furniture we ate dinner at most nights, and the great view from the deck.

"I guess that's it." I said, turning the camera around so you could see my face again. "So we're going to head out and get started with our hike."

Connor and I grabbed the drawstring bags we'd used the first time we went hiking and headed out the door.

"So, we were looking at a map of the area that the owners of the house left us and we found this trail that's about half a mile away and it's supposed to be fairly difficult and we decided to give it a shot. The first hike we went on, we came across this huge boulder to climb over, but me being only about 5'2", I couldn't reach the handhold to pull myself over so Connor had to give me a boost. I'm hoping we don't find another boulder like that because I will be pissed." I said.

"Maybe we'll see another deer." Connor said.

"I hope so. I love animals."

"Hopefully we don't see any mountain lions." He mumbled.

I froze. "What? There are mountain lions here?"

He nodded. "A few. They don't usually bother humans though."

"I want to go home." I said.

"Babe, come on, they're not going hurt us. They wouldn't have trails in areas where there a lot of mountain lions anyways." Connor said.

"Mountain lions have legs. They can travel." I said.

Connor sighed. "Sof, I promise that you're not going to get hurt by any mountain lions."

I followed him a moment later and I continued recording for a while as we walked. After about twenty minutes, I shut the camera off so that the battery wouldn't die before we got to the lake.

"So, are you serious about leaving O2L?" I asked as we walked.

Connor shrugged. "I don't know. I think I might need to."

I nodded. "I understand. Like I said, I have your back no matter what and I'm sure the guys will support you too. We all want you to be happy."

We continued our hike in silence for another twenty minutes, only speaking when we reached a fork in the trail and had to decide which way to go.

My legs were hurting badly, the bruises Connor had inadvertently left on my thighs were aching and an occasional spasm would run down my leg, all the way from thigh to ankle. I knew we were close to the lake and that I would be able to rest soon, so I forced myself onwards, ignoring the growing pain in my left leg.

After a short while, I could hear the water from the lake and I began walking faster, desperately wanting to sit down and rest for a few minutes or hours. Once we stepped onto the sand, it got ever harder to walk, my feet sunk down in the sand with each step and the pain continued to grow.

We didn't walk far before picking a spot, far enough away from other groups and with just enough sunlight. We removed the towels from our bags and laid them down beside each other and I immediately fell onto mine, removing my shoes, shorts, and sports bra to reveal a white bikini.

Connor wanted to go in the water but I really did not feel like getting up or moving anytime soon, or ever, for that matter. I claimed I wanted to get some sun before Connor headed out to the water on his own.

He swam for roughly thirty minutes while I laid out, still trying to ignore the pain in my leg which started to dull after ten minutes of not moving it.

I sat up to examine the bruises on my thighs to see how bad they had to be if they were causing this much pain, but I found no real bruises, only slightly yellowed spots where the bruises had been. I pressed down on one of the circles and pain shot all the way down to the arch of my foot, I couldn't prevent the slight whine that escaped my mouth.

I noticed Connor walking towards me so I fell back onto the towel and willed my leg muscles to stop fucking twitching.

He sat down on his own towel and noticed the slight movement in my leg right away. "Is your leg alright?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, my leg's fine. I'm just sore from the hike and everything. Oh, I almost forgot, I promised to vlog the lake."

I pulled my Nikon vlogging camera from my bag and turned it on. "We made it to the lake. The hike was a little bit intense but it was really nice, I enjoyed it greatly. We've been here for like half an hour and Connor has already gone swimming because he is actually half fish. I'm tempted to go in the water but this is a really nice beach and the weather is perfect, I also intend to look vaguely hispanic by the time we leave so I need to do a lot of work on my tan."

"Do you know what time it is?" Connor asked suddenly.

Neither of us had our phones and I knew the time on my camera was wrong so I looked up at the sky, trying to judge the time by the placement of the sun. "Uhh, probably about half past three, maybe four."

"If that's right then we were hiking for three hours or more." He said.

"Wait, really?" I asked.

He nodded. "We left the cabin just after noon."

"Hmm. Well, I guess it makes sense that my leg is killing me and that I'm actually starving." I said.

Connor pulled two granola bars from his bag and handed one to me.

"Oh, god bless you for being more prepared than me." I said, unwrapping it quickly.

Before I took a bite, I realized I was still vlogging. "Oh, I should probably show you guys what the lake actually looks like."

I turned the camera and showed the lake for a few seconds and got a shot going up the beach. As I turned it back around, I stopped on Connor. "And this is the fish."

He laughed. "Hey, you like to swim just as much as I do."

"That's very true." I admitted and turned the camera back to myself. "We're both fish. Connor, do you know any good fish puns? I feel like this is a good time for one, or twenty."

I turned the camera slightly so you could see both of us as we tried to think up funny fish puns.

"If you can think of any good fish puns, let minnow." He said.

I laughed. "You're krilling me right now."

"Ah! That was good." He laughed.

"Have you got another one? Or do you need more time to mullet over?"

We laughed again.

"Keep friends close, anenomes closer." Connor said.

I nearly choked on the granola bar I'd just taken a bite of. "Oh my cod."

"What did the fish say when it swam into a wall? Dam."

"Connor, that has got to be the sealiest thing I've ever heard."

He sighed. "Too many fish puns, I think I'll scale back."

I nodded. "We're dolphinately making way too many puns."

We laughed for a solid minute after that.

"We really do need to stop." Connor said, suddenly serious.

I nodded. "Yeah, I know."

We continued talking to the camera for another ten minutes or so before I shut it back off.

"I kind of want to stay here until the sunsets but I really don't want to hike back at night, do you see my problem?" I said.

Connor nodded. "Honestly, I would hate hiking back at night. We wouldn't be able to see, it would probably be a little cold, and we would get lost."

"We would definitely get lost."

"Maybe we can drive here tomorrow and stay until the sunsets then drive back." He suggested.

I nodded. "I like that idea."

"We have to go home in like two days." He groaned.

I sighed. "Unfortuantely."

"All I'm going to hear from the guys for the next week is questions about how many times we had sex or got drunk." He said.

"What do you think I'm going to hear from Tyler? He's not going to ask me how the fucking weather was."

"He might." Connor defended.

I nodded sarcastically. "Yeah, I'll walk in the door and this is how it will be. Tyler will ask if the weather was nice but before I can answer that question he will immediately ask 'Did you two finally do it?' That's exactly how it will go."

He laughed. "I won't even get in the door before Kian asks. We both know that's true."

I nodded. "I know. I've been friends with Kian for like three years. Did I ever tell you that before I moved we once had an hour long skype conversation about how weird anal is?"

"How did you spend an hour talking about that?"

I shrugged. "I have no fucking clue."

After spending a couple more hours laying around and talking, we figured we should probably get headed home so that we wouldn't be caught outside at night.

The hike back to the cabin was ten times as painful as the hike to the lake but I forced myself onward at a quick speed in hopes of getting home quickly.

The moment we got through the door and I sat down on the loveseat and put my legs up.

"Sofia, are you 100% sure your leg is okay?" He asked.

I sighed and shook my head. "I don't know. I'm pretty sure it's nothing, just sore from hiking and stuff. I mean, how bad could it really be?"

"Will you go to the doctor if it gets worse or doesn't stop?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, I will."

"Good." He said. "I'm going to fix food, you are going to sit there and not move."

I laughed. "I'm perfectly fine with that."

"Should I fix chicken?" He asked, looking through the fridge.

"_Can _you fix chicken?" I asked.

"Ha ha." He said humorlessly. "Of course I can fix chicken."

I nodded. "Then fix chicken."

"I feel like I've heard the phrase 'fix chicken' too many times." He said.

"Shut up and fix chicken."

He laughed and got started on dinner.

He fried chicken, made mashed potatoes, and prepared my favorite vegetable of all time, green beans.

We ate in the living room while talking about sports we played while we were in school, he told me about his experiences with his swim team and I told him about my experiences on my competitive cheer team.

After eating, Connor went to wash the dishes while I hobbled into the bathroom to take a shower. Since standing wasn't really a fun thing for me, I ended up sitting on the shower floor the whole time, not to mention cursing under my breath when I got shampoo in my eyes and that it took at least ten minutes to get all of the conditioner out of my hair.

The hardest part was getting back up after sitting on a hard floor for about half an hour, but I managed, barely. Dying off was fairly simple, getting dressed again was hard. I had to sit on the toilet to pull my underwear and shorts on and putting on a bra is never fun for anyone.

After the shower, I walked into the bedroom to find Connor already passed out in bed. I carefully crawled in beside him, pulled the blanket up around my shoulders, and shut my eyes.

I woke up four hours later as a searing pain shot down my leg before my toes went numb. I thought I might have accidentally punched myself a thigh, something I'd done more than once in my sleep. But when the pain didn't subside after ten minutes, I thought something might be seriously wrong.

Another sharp pain flew through my leg and my entire foot was numb. Okay, yeah, something wasn't right.

"Connor." I whimpered, shaking his shoulder.

He sat up quickly and turned to look at me. "What's wrong?"

"My leg. Something's wrong with my leg." I said, tears pricking my eyes.

"What happened?" He asked.

I sniffled. "I thought I might've accidentally punched myself or something because I woke up and it hurt so fucking bad but now my entire foot is numb and my leg just hurts. Something isn't right. I know something isn't right."

"I'm taking you to the hospital." He said, jumping out of bed and pulling a shirt on before I could even react.

He slipped on a pair of shoes and found the keys before carefully scooping me up and carrying me out of the door.

He put me in the backseat of the car, leaned the passenger side front seat back a little, and propped my leg up on top of it.

On the way to the cabin, we'd seen a hospital only about fifteen minutes before actually arriving at the cabin. With Connor's driving, we were there in five minutes.

He carefully lifted me from the backseat and since it was only 2 am, he carried me straight to the emergency room entrance.

He explained to a nurse what had been happening and she instructed him to carry me into the first room and lay me down on the bed, which he did.

She drew blood, checked my blood pressure, pulse, and temperature. She asked if I had any allergies to medication and after I shook my head no, she gave me a shot that caused the pain to fade quickly, but my foot was still numb.

Connor was latched to my right hand the whole time.

The doctor came in, the nurse relayed all of the information to him, he fluttered around my leg a little bit before finally asking a question.

"Have you had any serious leg injuries?"

I shook my head. "Not recently."

"And before?"

"I dislocated my knee and tore my ACL in grade six." I explained.

He nodded. "Did you ever experience anything like this soon after the injury?"

"Yeah, for months afterward I would get cramps and spasms almost every hour, all the way from my thigh to my foot. My foot would go numb sometimes. But I can't see how an injury I had when I was like 12 would cause this. It's been six and a half years." I said.

"We're going to have to scan your leg to see if anything's... Out of place. I don't anticipate seeing anything broken, fractured, or dislocated." He explained.

"So... What is it then?" I asked, fearing the worst.

Another nurse came in at that moment and handed the doctor a slip of paper that he looked over quickly.

"You have extremely low iron. Have you been taking medicine for your anemia?" He asked.

"I... I wasn't aware that I was anemic." I stuttered.

"Oh... Well, in that case, I'll be writing you a prescription for iron supplements. Now, to the more pressing matter at hand, if nothing is broken, we're potentially looking at nerve damage." He said.

I froze. "Nerve damage? What? How?"

"When you dislocated your knee, you may have pinched a nerve or two, that could be what's causing this. Sometimes the effects don't show up for years, even after something like that, especially if the nerve is barely pinched. We'll know more after we get you scanned, run a few tests, and get the results."

"If it is nerve damage, what would the treatment be?" I asked.

"It depends on how bad the damage is. If it's mild, medication will do the trick. If it's more severe, you may need surgery."

~!Review, please. Let me know what you guys think is going to happen/what you want to happen. Thanks for reading.!~


	14. Home

"Do you want me to carry you?" Connor asked.

I laughed. "Uh, if you want to."

He lifted me and slung me carefully over his shoulder while I held my crutches behind his back and he carried our stuff in his free hand. I swayed gently as he walked towards the house and he took me inside.

As he kicked the door shut behind him, he dropped our bags by the door, and carefully placed me on the lounge.

"Sofia! Sof!"

The shouts began a second after I'd gotten comfortable and three boys came sprinting down the stairs, making as much noise as three boys could possibly make.

Kian immediately started stacking up pillows around me to help me get more comfortable while JC pulled the coffee table over and carefully propped my leg up.

"Do you need anything? Do you want some tea? A snack? We have Oreos, do you want Oreos?" Ricky asked rapidly.

"Guys, guys!" I said. "Calm down for like two seconds."

They all stopped suddenly.

"I'm fine. I am perfectly fine. Although, yes, Ricky, a cup of tea would be lovely. Kian, I have enough pillows, I don't need them to hold me up, I can do that myself. JC, if you adjust my leg one more time I am going to use that leg to kick you." I said. "As much as I appreciate your concern, I really am fine."

Ricky ran off to get me a cup of tea and JC and Kian finally calmed down.

Connor sat down beside me and draped his arm around my shoulders, giving me a light squeeze.

JC sat down on the other side of me and Kian sat beside him.

A moment later, Ricky walked in holding a mug of steaming tea in his hand. He handed it to me and thanked him before taking a drink. Connor reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of my pills. He dropped two into my hand and I used the tea to wash them down.

"Did you guys have fun at the cabin?" Ricky asked.

I nodded. "It was basically amazing."

Connor and I spent the next twenty minutes telling them about the cabin, hiking, swimming, and relaxing. We also showed the guys some of the pictures we'd taken.

As we looked at pictures, I realized I needed to edit and upload my vlog.

I tried to stand up but Connor stopped me. "What do you need? I'll get it."

"My laptop and vlogging camera." I said.

He ran up to his room to get my laptop since that's where I'd left it, when he came back downstairs, he dug through my bag to find the small silver camera which had somehow managed to find it's way to the very bottom of the suitcase despite having been placed on top when we packed to come home.

I removed the card from the camera, placd it into my laptop, uploaded all of the footage from the day at the lake, the little bit of footage I'd snuck at the hospital, and the parts from the drive home.

The footage added up to about an hour and a half but I edited it down to 12 minutes beforing titling it, uploading it to my channel, and Tweeting out the link.

I didn't bother to wait to check comments because my meds were beginning to make me very tired and I couldn't be bothered to focus on anything for more than thirty seconds at a time. Connor had obviously noticed how fatigued I was because he put my camera and laptop back into my bag before carrying me up the stairs and tucking me into his unbelievably comfortable bed. Usually Connor wouldn't hesitate to climb in beside me, even if he wasn't tired, but he could tell how exhausted I was and since I had a light incision on my leg from one of the tests the doctor had to run, he didn't want to take the chance of keeping me awake or accidentally hitting my leg.

I think that, when I finally fell asleep, I was too tired to dream or at least to tired to remember what I dreamed about. When I woke up about ten hours later, at 9 pm exactly, I was completely refreshed and, surprisingly, in no pain.

Connor had left my crutches by the bed in case I needed to get up for any reason so I stood up, placed them under my arms and hopped my way down the stairs.

The guys obviously heard me because Kian hurried over to make sure I was alright. He hovered next to me, probably to make sure I didn't fall.

"I'm sure Connor would've come to make sure you were alright but he fell asleep on the sofa about an hour ago. I think he's convinced himself he did something that caused your leg to hurt." He explained as he walked and I hobbled into the kitchen.

I leaned my crutches against the tall counter as I hopped up on one of the chairs. "He didn't do anything at all. Doctor Foster said it was slight nerve damage caused by a knee injury I had when I was about twelve. I'd dislocated my knee and apparently a nerve or two had been pinched and it just recently started bothering me. I thought it was weird that an injury I had like six years ago would just start hurting but apparently it takes years for you to actually have serious complications caused by stuff like this."

"Then why did Connor think he did something?" He asked.

"Basically, we uh, we had sex and I had a few bruises on my inner thighs, nothing really unusual, that happens to people sometimes. It kind of hurt but not bad, just like a bruise, and when we were hiking I didn't think much of it, necessarily. When we got to the lake, I realized the bruises on my legs were gone so it had to be something else, then later that night, I kept getting these weird spasms in my leg and my foot was entirely numb so I woke Connor up and he drove to the hospital we'd seen. I told the doctor that I'd had a few bruises on my leg that really hurt that I'd gotten while going horseback riding-" Kian snorted into his palm at that and I shot him a look "-and I asked if that could have triggered the pain, but he said no and that something as simple as a bruise doesn't trigger nerve pain to start and that it was merely a coincidence that the two events happened like that."

"So you finally had sex." Kian said.

I laughed and nodded. "Yeah, we did."

"Can I tell you something?"

I nodded. "Of course."

"You guys are my OTP." He whispered.

I grinned. "Thanks. I love him, Ki, I really really love him."

"I thought you didn't believe in love." He teased.

"I thought so too, but as it turns out, I believe pretty strongly in it, considering this is the first time I've ever said I love anyone who isn't my family or Olivia, it must be pretty serious."

Kian faked a frown. "Not even me?"

"Ki, you know I love you, I don't have to tell you. You're like my brother, my crazy brother that looks nothing like me and likes to smash a lot of things and makes me laugh at the worst times."

"What bad times have I made you laugh?" He challenged.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe at the Streamys when it was really serious and Connor was doing his introduction thing and I was trying to focus and you made this really quiet and scarily realistic fart noise that only I could hear and then I almost choked on water and I was trying not to laugh so that I started to cry and Flula, who was at an entirely different table, looked over because he thought I might have been dying." I said.

He laughed. "Okay, that was one time."

"One very inopportune time." I said.

"I'm thinking about ording a pizza." He said suddenly. "You want to order a large and we can split it?"

I nodded. "Sounds great. Pepperoni and extra cheese?"

"You know me so well." He smiled and grabbed his phone.

He called in the order and I spun around in my chair like an actual child, by the time he had ordered the pizza, I was dizzy as hell.

I wobbled slightly in my seat. "Woah, the room is moving super fast and if it continues I might actually vomit."

"Shake your head." Kian said.

I shook my head vigorously and opened my eyes.

"Better?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yeah, a little. Where'd you learn that?"

"Are you forgetting how much I enjoy spinning?"

"Fair enough." I admitted. "That's a good trick, I'll remember that."

We chatted casually for about thirty minutes until there was a knock on the door, the pizza had arrived.

I handed Kian half of what was due and he ran to pay and get the pizza.

He came back into the kitchen, dancing around with the box of pizza as if it were his one true love, and I knew that it actually was.

He placed the box on the counter, grabbed two cans of beer, handed one to me and opened one for himself, before we dug into the amazing pizza.

Basically, we ended up eating the entire pizza and finishing off four beers each. The abundance of food and little bit of alcohol in our systems caused us to become very tired very quickly.

Since Connor had managed to fall asleep in the living room and we didn't want to bother him, we headed up to Kian's room and turned on a movie. We decided Movie 43 was a good, wildly innapropriate movie so we watched that.

We laid at the foot of the bed and watched the movie on his laptop before I passed out with my face smushed into the mattress, Kian must've fallen asleep soon after I did.

I awoke the next morning to tapping on the bedroom door, Kian was still fast asleep.

"Come in." I called quietly.

It was Connor, he looked like he'd just woken up himself. "Morning."

"Morning."

"What are you doing?" He asked.

"We fell asleep watching Movie 43." I explained.

He nodded, stifling a yawn. "Do you want to go get breakfast at Chic-fil-a or something?"

I got out of bed and we made our way down stairs. I slipped on a pair of flip flops I'd left by the door and we headed out.

"I'm starving." I admitted as we pulled out of the driveway."I didn't even realize I was hungry until now."

The drive to Chic-fil-a was short and quiet because neither of us were functioning enough to speak yet. As we arrived at Chic-fil-a, we were greeted with nothing more than disappointment.

"Who the fuck thought closing this Chic-fil-a was a good idea? I am offended. God, we could have been giving some warning, sent a letter in the mail. But we got nothing." I said.

"I think this is actually the saddest moment of my life."

I nodded. "I agree."

"Do you want to go to Taco Bell instead?" He asked after staring at the closed building for a minute.

I nodded. "Yeah, let's get Taco Bell."


	15. Movie Day

My newly healed leg felt better than ever despite the fact that sometimes I felt like I didn't actually know how to use it and walking was a bit of a chore, minor issues caused by the nerve damage and lack of use during the healing process that would stop soon, according to my doctor who I'd called at least once a week after getting home.

Connor had barely left my side when I was on crutches but I had errands to run and he had a meeting to go to, so I had a little bit of time to myself, although I wasn't technically by myself.

I took a cab to three different apartment buildings, looking for a nice one bedroom apartment in a good area that I could actually afford. Unfortunately, the first two apartments were not satisfactory. The first one was in a bad area of town where I knew a lot of sketchy things went down, the second was affordable but would require a lot of extra work including buying new appliances and fixing up the bathroom which would cost far too much. The third apartment I'd looked at was absolutely beautiful and perfect and stunning and all I could ever want from an apartment, except for the price.

The Mediterranean was located a few blocks from Sunset Blvd, within walking distance from Melrose, and was merely two miles from The Grove. They had wifi, a gym, and a heated pool that was open year round. The one bedroom apartment was fairly spacious and entirely beautiful, and it showed in the price. I would do anything to get that apartment, but $2000 a month for rent plus an $800 deposit just wasn't plausible or possible.

The cab dropped me off in front of the O2L house and I walked up to the door. I'd barely raised my hand to knock when the door opened.

"Hey, Trevor." I smiled.

"Hey, Sof." He pulled me into the house and shut the door.

The lights were all off and the boys were sitting in various positions around the living room.

Kian was sprawled out on the chaise part of the sectional, JC was laying at the opposite end of the lounge, Ricky was sitting in the middle, and Sam was sitting in the arm chair. The floor in between the lounge and the tv was turned into a pillowy wonderland. It looked like there were five or six different duvets and at least ten different pillows covering the floor. Trevor and Connor were sitting there and Connor patted the open space beside him.

"Um, do you guys mind if I go change super quick? It'll only take like two minutes." I said.

"Go ahead. We need to make popcorn anyway." Kian said.

I hurried into the bathroom and opened my bag. I kicked off my flats, wiggled out of my black dress pants, and unbuttoned my blouse before folding the clothes and putting them in my purse. The clothes I'd brought with me were far more comfortable, blue and purle tie-dyed pj shorts, a grey North Face hoodie, and black moccasin slippers. I didn't have to do anything to my hair because it was already twisted up into a neat bun.

I headed back to the living room to find three massive bowls of popcorn had been distributed about the room and Sam's mini fridge was plugged in next to the lounge and filled with soda, bottled water, and beer.

"Oh, I almost forgot!" I said and opened another compartment of my large bag.

I pulled out 10 different boxes and bags of candy, including various sour candies as well as chocolate. "Take whatever you want, but make sure you guys share."

They all thanked me before grabbing whatever candy they wanted.

I laid down beside Connor and it didn't even feel like I was laying on the floor because of all the blankets. Connor wrapped his arm around my shoulders and kissed my cheek. "So, how was your day?"

"Long." I sighed. "But it's better now. We haven't all had a movie day together in way too long."

JC was now standing in front of the tv, holding several dvds in his hands. "What do you guys want to watch?"

"The Conjuring!" Kian screamed.

Everyone agreed, except for me. "Guys, I haven't seen it. Am I going to get scared and never sleep again?"

"Probably, because you're scared of everything." Sam teased.

I stuck my tongue out at him. "I'm not scared of you."

"It's because I am not a threat to you. But then again, neither are lady bugs and you freak out whenever you see them."

"Listen, lady bugs are fucking weird. First of all, that's a shitty name because they aren't all ladies, what about the man lady bugs. They just want to be called man bugs, but noooooo. Prejudice. Second, they are ugly. Have you ever seen one up close? They're weird looking and I hate it. Third, they smell fucking disgusting, especially when you smash them. They're just freaky and weird and I want nothing to do with them." I said.

"That's kind of how I feel about spiders." Connor said.

"Spiders don't bother me. I actually kind of like spiders."

"You like things with more legs." Kian joked.

I shook my head. "Not entirely true. Have you ever seen my reaction to seeing a millipede? I freak the fuck out and I hate them more than lady bugs. They have way too many legs, they're too long, they look weird as fuck as when they walk, and they are so ugly. Like, they are literally the ugliest things I have ever seen. I hate them. If there were a button I could push to remove all millipedes from existence, I would push it without hesitation."

JC was still standing in front of the tv holding the dvds. "I thought this was a movie day. Not a 'listen to Sofia rant about all of the insects she hates day.'"

I laughed. "Just put in The Conjuring. If I scream and any of you go deaf, I cannot be held responsible because I warned you."

The movie started and it wasn't too bad at first. I jumped a few times and each time, Connor squeezed my shoulders.

I was starting to get used to some of the scares when it suddenly got much much worse. I'd been lulled into a false sense of security when suddenly the ghost of the witch was on top of the closet and she jumped down like some crazy, ugly, dead bitch. I screamed. I actually and literally screamed. My scream was so loud and so sudden that it caused all of the boys to jump, especially Connor.

"Sorry." I mumbled as everyone tried to focus back on the movie.

"I think my ear drum burst." Connor whispered.

"I think I almost peed." I whispered back.

He chuckled and kissed my cheek.

The rest of the movies we watched weren't nearly as scary as The Conjuring, which I appreciated. The scariest things that happened was when I was coming out of the bathroom and Ricky came walking down the hall to go into the bathroom and I immediately assumed it was a dead witch. So, I screamed, fell down, and accidentally kicked Ricky in the shin.

"Don't ever come walking towards me in a dark hallway after watching a scary movie because things like this will happen again." I said, still laying on the floor.

My heart was pounding and Ricky was rubbing his shin where I'd accidentally kicked him.

I walked back into the living room and sat down.

"What was the screaming about?" Trevor asked.

"I thought Ricky was a dead witch that was coming to take over my body."

Everyone laughed.

"Ha." I said without humor.

By midnight, I was exhausted. We were all exhausted.

Everyone went to their rooms, I obviously went into Connor's room.

I kicked off my moccasin slippers before crawling in beside Connor. His arms immediately wrapped around my waist and hugged me close to his side. I rested my head against his chest and listened to his heart.

"Are you still scared?" He asked.

"No." I muttered. "Not anymore."

"Good." He kissed the top of my head. "I love you."

"I love you." I whispered.

"And I promise not to let go of you all night, just to make sure you feel safe."

I smiled. "Thanks, Con."

"Don't worry about it, babe."

"Goodnight." I said.

He squeezed my hips. "Goodnight."

~!Sorry I took so long to update. I got hurt hiking about a week ago and I've been somewhat sick so I've been sleeping a lot. I hope you liked the chapter. Please review and let me know what you think. Thanks. -Aly!~


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